Its All In The Smile
by Apple Senorita
Summary: Max, Tala and Kai are living in an apartment together with serious emotional baggage. See what happens when they have to learn to get through together. No slash. Give it a try. New Chapter is up guys!
1. Chapter 1

**AS: **Hey! Look, I wrote this is a sort of fling of self-pity late tonight, and this is the prologue and the first chapter will follow tomorrow first thing, so I want you to tell me exactly what you think of it so that I know whether I should continue. No flames, cos they will ultimately be ignored.

I hope you like it. I'm going to go to bed now and await reviews.  
I hope this isn't going to get deleted because it's too short. It IS only a prologue after all.

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_**Prologue**_

Under such circumstances, I'd say we were doing Ok. Me: Max Tate, and Kai Hiwatari and Tala Ivanov, as we live in this newly built

high-rise apartment block in Brooklyn. Such circumstances weren't exactly expected and it's not like we planned this after the last World

Championships came to a screeching and confusing halt.

I didn't really foresee my Mum's brand new research centre in Mumbai needing so much of her time. So much of her time in fact, that she

decided to move there. And I couldn't predict that my Dad would get a girlfriend, the whole thing to turn serious and the pair of them to

go on a ridiculously-long world-wide cruise, leaving me in the lurch in the States.

I don't think Tala entirely mapped out being in a coma either, nor the stuff he had to go through afterwards such as compulsory therapy

and about a billion checkups. He came through all of that, and was left with no where to go apart from care. He wants to help out putting

money into the apartment, but he can't get a job. He never got any educational qualifications. He can't prove he was home-taught at the

Abbey or is generally smart, so to the working world he may as well be illiterate and back in his coma. Every time he's turned down for a

job, he comments: the only thing I'm good for is drug-smuggling.

And I doubt Kai really could foretell the nasty, awkward clause at the bottom of Voltaire's will that said Kai can't benefit at all from his

fortune until he is eighteen years old, leaving him with no home, no money apart from a weekly allowance that the judge ruled he needed,

and the prospect of having to go to a care home for two years.

So, as we staggered around completely reeling in shock, the BBA decided not to let us flounder around in the gutter, and Mr Dickenson

brought us a rent-controlled flat. Close to the USA's BBA headquarters, where he can watch over us when he's in the country. He

announce that the three of us, reprobates from the shadow of the Third World Championships, would live together until things were

sorted for the three of us.

Mr Dickenson pays the rent, and we pay for everything else. He takes the reporters and media from our backs, and we try to keep it

together when _one of us_ can't and won't eat thanks to being fed through a tube the last month or so. He ensures that he'll pick up the

slack when he can, and we try to get as many crummy jobs as possible at one time to make sure that slack isn't going to show. He sets us  
up with people who help organise kids who work at home so that I can still study and Tala and Kai can start. And, sometimes flailing, we

run around in the background and try to look after each other under this one roof.

The last rent cheque Mr Dickenson sent got lost in the mail the other day. I had to go to the landlord and explain. I think he was won over  
by my excuses and big, open smiles, showing him I wasn't cheating him out of the rent, merely a victim in bad circumstances.

Too true.

And he let me off.

It's all in the smile.

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AS: please review! Dont be mean. The next chapter will be our first day looking into what goes on in an apartment lived in by three world championship bladers with serious emotionalbaggage. 


	2. Chapter 2

**AS**: Thanks to **Kenzie Jadenwie** for reviewing in the prologue. I was so glad to see your review when I turned my computer on this morning: yes, somebody actually tolerated that fanfic! Anyway, this is another test for this whole fanfic. It may be a little slow-paced but it's pretty much a current life-story.

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**_It's All In the Smile - Chapter 1 _**

I woke up to an eyeful of bright sunshine. Curtains just aren't what they used to be. I rolled around a bit so that I'm curled up into a bundle, my head stuck under the pillow, and my feet, cold from being dangled off the edge of the bed all night, tucked in at the bottom. Hmm…so nice and waaaarm. Maybe if I stay like this forever the world will go away.

…..

Maybe not. But I must have fallen back to sleep for a bit, because now someone's got their hand on my shoulder. I make an unintelligible grunt and clutch tighter to the duvet, in case anyone is going to rip it off me. God I'm so tired, it feels like I haven't been to sleep at all! And all my hair's in my eyes and my feet are itchy. It's cold outside my little cocoon, I can feel it on my ear, which is now the only part of me poking out. If it's too cold when I get up I'm going straight back into bed.

"Max?"

Someone's playing the radio downstairs. And…oh, what's that smell? I shuffle a little so that I can catch that smell again. Hm…._PANCAKES_! Someone's making pancakes.

Who is this on my bed? Tala? I guess it is. He's the only one who'd ever wake me up this gently. If Kai gets send up to do it it's usually: 'Max get out of bed or you're not getting any breakfast', followed by the duvet being ripped from my fragile and usually cold person.

Tala's just pulled some of the hair out of my eyes. How did my head get out from under the pillow? Aw he's stolen my pillow!

I'd pout if I wasn't so tired…

"Max?"

"Hm?"

"I'm making pancakes, do you want some?"

I turn my shoulders to see if I can focus now I'm facing away from the sun. And yes, it's Tala. He's knelt on my bed with a small smile on his face. He's wearing a white t-shirt and dark pants, his bare feet poking off the edge of my bed, eyes with that wolfish feral glint watching me placidly as I struggle to come around. His wrists, laid delicately over his knees, are accompanied by quite a few bracelets and he's got that necklace Rei got him for Christmas around his neck, the same colour as his pants, I notice. The two strands of hair usually separate from the rest get into his eyes and he blinks them away. His hair has grown longer over the weeks and months, and it looks a bit shaggier than when I first laid eyes on him.

"Hey Tala,"

"Hey," he says, with a small smile. He stands up and steps over me, prodding me with his toe, "Now get up if you want pancakes,"

I whine when he prods me in the side, where I'm freakily ticklish. It's a publicly known thing, and although it's alright for fangirls to know and coo over, it's a lethal weapon in this house. Ok, now I'm distracted, what was I thinking about?...oh yeah…pancakes. Mmmmm, I _love_ Tala's pancakes. I sit up and stare across the room. I feel half _dead_, what's wrong with me? Did I drink last night or something? Actually, I can't remember what I did last night. Apart from sob over the boiler when it packed in again.

I sit and itch my feet for a while, even after the scratch has gone.

However much I love pancakes, I still can't seem to drag myself out of bed.

"I'm tired," I moan in Tala's general direction as he leaves the room. He's taken his time, picking up a few of my stray t-shirts and pants that have been scattered across the floor and piling them up over the end of my bed. Now he's at the door, stepping over my collection of school books I dumped there yesterday. He just chuckles at my moaning and exits, leaving the door wide open so more of that glorious pancake smell wafts into the room. I sit where I am and lazily daydream going downstairs and eating a _pile_ of Tala's amazing pancakes dripping in everything I can think to pour on them.  
Mmmmm….

"You've got five seconds Max, until I'm throwing them all away!"

Dilemma. Big dilemma. I want to go back to bed but I want pancakes…

"Five!...four!"

"I'm coming!"

* * *

Oh God, another argument. This time I'm left on the sidelines, hurriedly washing dishes whilst Tala and Kai hiss and spit at each other like two fighting felines in the living room. All in Russian too. Although I know exactly what it's about, seeing as it started at the breakfast table. I'd sort of like it if we could have one meal time where there wasn't going to be a mini-implosion. Particularly in the morning….too many loud voices. Suddenly my red haired roommate it stood next to me. He grabs two plates and begins to clean them, nearly shouldering me over.

"Are you Ok?"

The front door opens and closes. Kai's exited the building.

"I'm fine,"

He puts a plate down and stares out of the window. There's not much to see out of our kitchen window. I suppose it's a pretty impressive view of the rest of Brooklyn, but it's a pretty shabby patch that our apartment looks out onto, and there's a dog peeing on a lamppost and a cat hoiking up on the pavement. And it's way too quiet. Everybody's probably scouting out patches of grass in the parks, under trees or in the full glare of the light where they can tan and enjoy the sun. Walking dogs or going for a run or just generally being outdoor-ish. We should probably be doing that too.

"Tala?"  
I prod Tala gently on the shoulder but he's completely zoned out. Probably best to leave him. I dry off the plates and let the water out. The dog that was peeing starts to chase the cat that was throwing up, and now there's nothing left in the streets I can see. I briefly wonder how my Mum's doing in Mumbai. Whether it's hotter than it is here over there. I wonder how my Dad's doing on his insanely-long cruise with his girlfriend. He should be somewhere in the Maldives by now. I try and get Tala to move over so I can put away the plates but he's not moving. He's starting to scare me now. He's not responding.  
"Tala. Tala. Tala!" I click my fingers in front of his face and he eventually comes around.

"Tala,"

"What?"

"You zoned out,"

"Sorry,"

He moves so that I can reach the cupboard and wanders into the hallway.  
"I forgot! The mail came," he calls, "You got a postcard from your Dad!"  
"A postcard?"  
"Yes,"

I rush into the hallway and grab it from him, as he begins to fish through the rest of the mail. He's right. A postcard. Not a letter. _No_! No money then. Looks like the boiler will have to wait a while until it can be properly fixed. Another stretch where the three of us will have to put up with our showers spontaneously becoming freezing sheets of ice bulleting down on our backs. I turn the postcard over and read the two lines scrawled on the back. Two lines. 'Having a good time, write to later love Dad'.

If I didn't recognise Dad's writing, I would have assumed his new girlfriend - whose never laid eyes on me in real life before - wrote it. Thanks, Dad.

"Oh, here's the rent cheque," Tala fished out the slip of paper, flapping it in the air, "And then some junk mail," he pauses to read them, looking interested, "Max are we having termite problems?"

"No. But a similar problem comes up when Tyson visits,"  
Tala flipped his wrists and the entire pile of junk mail landed in the bin under the hallway table.

"Nothing interesting then," he looks bored. To be honest, sometimes I think Tala wishes he had such a rigorous training structure as he did at the abbey. He had something to do every minute of the day, and he knew he had to do it or he'd face consequences. Now, apart from washing the dishes and eating three square meals - which is a hard task for Kai and I to make him do - there's nothing that Tala's expected to do. He was brought up to be a terrifying Beyblader. Now he's got nothing to do. Also, nowadays, he's forced into social interaction. I don't think he's still entirely used to it. He still glares at people when they try to talk to him in the street, and he has problems dealing with Tyson and his rampant questions, particularly when they're in the same space like a room or a lift or a corridor…or, you know, planet earth.

But over the months, he's talked to me and Kai whenever he feels like it. I think I'm seeing the sort of person Tala may have been if he'd been given a good home instead of the Abbey. It's just a glimmer, but I suppose under the circumstances it's that little spark's chance to shine. I've also seen a gentler side to Tala. Like the way he wakes me up in the morning. After years dragging his team mates out of bed at four o' clock in brittle Russian mornings, I'd thought he'd be a pro at whipping sheets away and prodding people from their beds. Maybe it was the coma that did it. Or the change of life's pace…

"How's your Dad?"  
I stuff the postcard away, "Fine. He's fine,"  
"Where abouts is he?"  
"I was right: the Maldives,"  
For a moment I stand in the hallway, whilst Tala moves off, still smarting from the argument with Kai. The apartment, right now, is the last place I want to be .

"Tala!"  
"Yes?"  
"Do you want to go to the park?"  
His head appears around the side of the living room doorway.

"If you want,"

I fiddle with a corner of the postcard in my pocket.  
"I just don't want to stay indoors anymore,"  
"Ok then. Lets go,"

He passes me for the door, and as he does I throw my Dad's postcard away. That'll teach him to send me stupid non-committal postcards from some far-off region with his new girlfriend.

* * *

The park is _full_ of people. It's a sea of half-naked bodies, glistening in the sun with their sun tan cream, trodden on and barked at by excited dogs off their leashes, as their owners throw their frisbees into the middle of a family picnic or a line of students sunbathing in bikinis. We wind our way to a quieter part, under the shade of the trees, where there are less people because there's no glaring sun to soak up. Five or so kids are sat in a circle not far away on the sandy grass, tinkering with their Beyblades, their empty chips flashing in the sun. I try to detract the attention away from the beyblades and say, "Where did Kai go?"  
Probably not the best diversion tactic in the world there Maxy.

"No idea," Tala muttered, folding his pale arms across his chest. After a moment of tenuous pause, he stands up: "Do you want an ice cream?"

I nod. I'm pretty amazed Tala is actually going to eat something without being chided to do so by either Kai or me. I'm also sort of stunned at how he's willingly going into a situation that will enquire social interaction. Well, he could just grunt and point but Tala's not a Neanderthal.

It's the miracle of the week, I might say, if I hadn't seen the size of that woman's chest sat over there on the park bench. They are not natural. They must have their own micro-climate…

"Pervert,"

Oh crap! I leap a mile at the sound but my heat-addled brain eventually registers that it's Kai, and there's a definite smirk of amusement in his voice.

"Hi Kai,"  
He doesn't say anything, but sits down next to me on the dried-out grass. I look purposefully at the branches above us so as not to be called a sex-craved perv. Although come on, I am at that age where I'm _expected _to be looking at women. Not that I'm looking at _that_ particular woman in that way. It's more wonderment at how she hasn't broken her back or smothered someone, rather than appreciation.

We're in a comfortable silence, the park noisy around us but this is Brooklyn afterall.

Kai hasn't changed much from the world championships. Looking at him now you probably wouldn't guess things had changed. He could still be training with his team, in the line for the next World Championship title. But he's not. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure he's ever going to be again.

He stretches out languidly. Ok, maybe one thing's changed. He's a hell of a lot more relaxed.

Tala reappears out of no-where with two ice-creams in hand. He hits down quietly and hands me my ice-cream mutely. No apologies for not getting Kai one, I notice. I sit awkwardly between the two, as I lick at my ice cream. I try to start a conversation, but realise there's not much to talk about in this awkward situation apart from whose going to have a go at making the boiler work properly tonight.  
"Do you want to watch a film tonight?" I eventually say, ice cream dribbling down my arm.

They both nod. Oh good, I got a response. I, very carefully, check Tala and how he's eating his ice cream. He's eaten about half of it, but seems to have stopped. Without even blinking, he slots his arm behind my head, ice cream in hand, so that it stops just beside Kai's ear. After a short pause, Kai takes the ice cream from Tala's pale hand and finishes it off.

Ok, what did I just witness there? Have they done this before? I continue eating mine, not saying anything, but completely puzzled. I could sweat they'd fallen out this morning, and that Tala was in a bad strop.

"Oh, by the way: my next paycheque should cover the phone bill. I'm getting it on Friday,"  
"You mean today?"  
"No. Friday. Tomorrow,"  
"Max, today's Friday,"  
I throw my ice cream to the floor and scramble to my feet, belting so fast the sunbathers I nearly trip over a poodle and a frisbee or two.

* * *

I had to _beg_ and _plead_ to persuade my boss to let me keep my job, as well as giving me the paycheque I was going to be given at the end of today's shift. I did my puppy-dog eyes routine, my sob story: I _really_ need this money, I'm living all on my own, and eventually he was sweetened enough to let me off being two hours late for work. I told him I'd been chasing my landlord up, who had set an ultimatum.  
"Yeah. You can keep your job. But you've gotta work two hours on the end of this shift, to make up,"  
"Sure Sir," I say weakly.

"And Max?"  
"Yes?"  
"Is that strawberry ice cream around your mouth and down your top?"

"Um..."

I ring Tala on the payphone in the kitchen and tell him I'm going to be two hours late getting home. He says fine, and asks me what I want for dinner.

"Savoury rice would be nice," I say, flattening myself against the wall as a chef walks by with a huge metal bowl full of chopped up meat.

"Ok. Bye,"

I go back to work and spend my whole shift trying to do as much as possible so my boss can look at me again without glaring.  
"Max I need all the bins shifted,"

"Shifted?"  
"Yeah. Some idiot kids knocked them about last night. They're scattered all over the alleyway,"

When he means bins, he doesn't mean the small metallic type you find under desks. He means the dumpster kind, filled to the top with stinking rubbish. Of course he meant dumpsters. This is a café. But I never realised the _size _of the café's dumpsters until I was up close, and having to drag them into a straight and orderly line. I swear the inside had been layered with dried cement, because I could barely move them.

I tugged futilely on them for a while, whilst my boss shouted at me from the upstairs kitchen for not getting a move on, and that maybe I should join a gym or something. I eventually managed to get one against the wall, but the wrong way around. I tugged on it to pull it back around, but I pulled too far.

'Crap!'

I threw myself out it's way and tumbled to the floor. It hit the concrete and bounced, it's lid flying open. As it moved back up again in the air, the rubbish inside it spewed force. From where I sat spread-eagled on the alley floor, there wasn't much I could do. I was smothered in a spray of rubbish, closely followed by a spray of it as the dumpster hit the ground again.

God.

Kill me now.

* * *

"I'm home!"  
Nice smell. Savoury rice. Drool. I can't wait. But until then I'll just stand in the hallway and bang my head against the hall wall.

"Max? Is that you?"  
"Yes,"

I keep my forehead pressed against the wall. It's cool and doesn't smell of the contents of a dumpster, like I do. Tala appears on my right and puts a hand between my shoulders.

"Max?"  
"Yeah,"  
Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry….You're supposed to be 'Maxy', the cheery happy blonde boy whose permanently on a sugar-high which everyone wonders how you got on. You _don't_ cry or get depressed about things like this...

"What happened?"  
"I think I may have lost my job,"  
"Really?"  
"Well, I don't know. But I think so. He was so angry when I chased away customers walking in looking like this, that he couldn't really talk. He just gave me my cheque and pointed to the door…"  
He rubs my back in small circles. _Don't_ cry Max, for Christ's sake, you're fifteen years old!

"Why do you smell like a bin?"  
"I got sprayed by one,"  
"Oh…"

Another shadow appears on me and I clench my eyes as tightly as possible. If I'm not gonna cry in front of Tala Ivanov, the infamously scary Russian beyblader, then I am _not_ going to cry in front of my team captain.

"Dinner's ready," Kai says, quietly.  
I get steered into the kitchen and we eat dinner in silence.

"Feel better?"  
"Yeah," I say in a small voice into my empty plate. Tala's barely touched his. Tala is a fantastic cook. He can cook anything from curry to cakes, from stir fry to salad. Not that he eats much himself. Tala's relationship with food has, in Tyson's words and awful vocabulary: 'Gone whack', thanks to that time he spent lying unconscious and being fed through a tube.

"Good. Now go and have a shower, you smell,"

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**AS**: Review…please. The lead up to Max's birthday is next... 


	3. Chapter 3

**AS: **Thank you so much for the reviews!

**If I Say I Love You**: Hehe, glad you liked it!

**DaCow Takao**: Thank you for you review! And yes, I've had the bad fortune to being sprayed by rubbish in similar circumstances…hmmm…maybe we should make a club…

**Kenzie Jadenwie:** Oh yes, you reviewed again! Thank you for them both! And yes: stupid dumpster!

**KHiwtari's girl: **Hey, thanks for the review! Hope this was good to wait for.

**Bear137: **Thank you for reviewing and I hope that this is a good chapter.

Keep those reviews coming! Helps me keep me going whilst my muse is working on bringing forth all those family nasty-bits that are helping me right this.

Enjoy!

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**_It's All In the Smile - Chapter 2_**

Instead of being woken up by a pancake smell, today I was awoken to the smell of something else. Something heavier and more sickly, but just as nice. I'm still wrapped up to the hairs on my head in my duvet, my feet tucked in at the bottom since they spent, once again, a whole night dangling into space off the edge of my mattress. Maybe when I go to bed tonight I should tie them to the end of the bed or something…

Someone's saying my name.

If that smell gets any closer I'll be able to eat whatever it's coming from. And now someone's on the bed. So is that two people, or one person?

I eventually crack my eyes open. Peering blurrily through my hair, I can see Kai and Tala, sat on the other side of my bed, eating something. They're both wearing black t-shirts today. In fact, that t-shirt Tala's wearing is probably Kai's. It's a little short cut, showing half of his stomach off. They're pretty much built alike but Tala's got a longer torso that Kai has. You notice things like these when you have to share clothes because the washing machine's exploded. Their pants are different though, Kai's are a charcoal grey, and Kai's are such a pale ice blue they're almost white.

"What are they?" I mumble, meaning the things they're eating. Well, the thing Kai is eating. Tala doesn't seem to have one. Which doesn't surprise me.  
Tala held one up in front of my face.

"Doughnuts!" I smile, leaning forward to take a bite. Tala whisked it away.  
"Nah-ah,"  
"Aw, why!"  
"You have to get up first,"  
I make a motion like a baby bird wanting to be fed, "Can't you just feed me in here? I'm nice and warm,"

I pull a puppy-dog eyes expression and pout, "Feed me,"

I think I'd make a good baby bird. I can be loud enough. I'll lie here wrapped in my duvet squawking like a baby bird with my mouth open, and Tala can feed me doughnuts and pancakes and whatever he's cooked…not whatever he's eaten though. I'm not taken my imagery of Tala being a mother bird _that_ far. The idea of Tala, or anyone, regurgitating food for me makes me feel very ill.

"Chirp," I say, opening my mouth again and again.

"I refuse to feed you like a baby bird," Tala says, catching on.

"Please. Just one mouthful."  
"One mouthful, then you'll get up,"  
"Fine,"

Kai takes a strawberry one and eats it lazily, as Tala holds one up for me. I lean forward and take a bit out of it.

Mmmmm. I lie there and chew, trying not to choke. I feel myself falling slowly…back…to sleep…

Of course, this is Tala and Kai sat on my bed. I won't get away with not holding a deal. Only a few seconds later I'm being thrown into the air as my duvet is whipped out from underneath me. I end up landing, nearly winded, on my back, with the duvet spread out on the floor.

Kai finishes his doughnut with a smirk.

"You're both so mean!" I whine.  
"Hey, we're only doing this," Tala points to the doughnut box, "Because you had a bad day yesterday,"  
"Thanks guys," I say with something of a shadow of my old grin on my face. After yesterday's fiasco, I may as well just throw myself off a bridge. I can't even keep a job, nevermind keep anything else together.

I reach forward to finally grab a doughnut but Tala swipes the box away.

"No,"  
"Why not?"  
"You're not going to eat this sugary crap on your bed,"  
"Kai's eating one on my bed!"  
Tala doesn't even bother looking where I'm pointing, which happens to be at Kai helping himself to his second doughnut.

"Does that have anything to do with anything?"  
"Yes! Actually!"

I doze for a moment whilst Kai finishes his doughnut off and Tala eats a half of one. He hands the other half wordlessly over to Kai, who takes it and eats it. I never knew Kai liked doughnuts so much. I don't think he indulges in them though. No-one who obsesses over doughnuts can have that flat a stomach.

"Why do you always come and wake me up?" I say into the silence, as I try to bring myself around.

"I've have plenty of practise in this sort of thing," Tala says idly.

"Really?"  
"You wouldn't believe how long it takes to get some people out of bed at four o' clock on a freezing morning,"

"Which one of you kept sleeping in then?"  
"Bryan would sleep in when he'd been too much of an idiot to go bed at the right time the night before-"

Tala finished for him: "But no-one dared wake him up. They'd be dead or else severely maimed within seconds,"

"So who did you have to drag out of bed?"  
Tala smiles like a cat whose got the cream and a nice fat rat too. It's not natural, the way his eyes can glint like that of a feral animal. Even Rei's cat-like eyes don't scare me that much…

"Kai,"

"Really? But…Kai's the one who used to march around the place dragging all of us out of bed,"

Ok now I'm completely confused. Role reversal I can deal with, like when my parents divorced and my Dad had to become a Dad and a mum substitute in those times of need. But role changing on _this_ scale, i.e. Kai's scale, made my head spin. Literally, actually. Probably because it was so early in the morning.

"Well, after years of cold buckets of water over his head and being spun from his sheets, he probably wanted to try out a few of the tricks himself," Tala smirked, and Kai's stare was steely and level, with just a very, very, _very_ faint bit of red on his cheeks. Tala carried on, enjoying it, "Does having the mattress tipped over with offending person still on top of it, onto a shoe, sound familiar?"

I gaped. That was _exactly_ what Kai had done to Tyson not too long ago! He had claimed the shoe had been there anyway, when Tyson had finally been conscious enough to have a full-blown rant at him.

"No way!"  
Tala smiled again.

"He learnt all that from you?"  
"Yes. And from his own laziness,"  
"I'm going downstairs," Kai said, rolling his eyes. He snatched the box of doughnuts away from Tala and disappeared with them.

Wow.

"Come on Max, get up," Tala says when he's stopped chuckling. I bury my face in the pillow and murmur, "I'm not in the mood,"  
"Pardon?"

I turn my head so my face is free and my words aren't swallowed by my pillow, "I'm not in the mood,"  
"You've got to Max. Get up,"  
"It's not fair. I didn't ask for those dumpsters to explode at me. Now I've got no job. And no money from my parents coming in,"

Tala just nods in response.  
I give up in the end, and go and get ready for the day.

Not that I want to.

I need to find a new job, and hope that some money comes from at least one of my parents today. I have a quick shower but I daren't stay under the spray too long. The last time I did the water turned so hot so suddenly, that I got a burn mark on my shoulder. I was lucky I was just getting out at the time, or I would have been burnt all over.

* * *

"You could get a job in the café down the road,"  
We've reconvened for dinner. Kai's been out all day God-knows-where, I've been trying to find a job, and Tala's been at home sleeping. It sounds like last night hadn't been a good one, and by the time we'd finished breakfast he'd completely burnt out. We found him fast asleep on the sofa, half curled on his side. We'd left him a note and gone about our day. When we arrived back, it looked like he'd only woken up. His hair kept falling into his face and his eyes were a little red. He kept putting a hand on his stomach, a reflex both Kai and I have known means he's stressed out.  
"I didn't even know there was a café down the road," I thought for a moment, "Oh. You mean the one with the hole in the glass at the front? You mean the one who's owner sits on the front step all day and doesn't like to move? Even for customers?"

"Yes,"  
"Tala, I'm not working there. I won't even be able to get in the door to ask for a job! I don't think they even have customers anymore, it's just a place him and his friends hang out where they can have a drink,"

"Fine. Well, your Dad sent another postcard,"

Tala slid the postcard across the table. As I pick it up I notice he's not eating a thing.  
"Another one? Why's he sent two in a row?"

"I think the first one was delayed in the mail, along with the rent cheque,"

The postcard's just as monosyllabic as the last one. A bit like Kai-speech.

Only Kai's more considerate of other people's feelings.

I can imagine he'd be even _more_ considerate, when taken into account his son's feeling if he left him homeless in America when suddenly setting sail with some woman said son had never heard of!

…Yes I am bitter and resentful. And yes that analogy was a bit long and didn't really work, seeing as Kai has no son, nevermind gone on a cruise with a some woman.

It's just not fair.

I knew nothing about that woman, and then the second I do, they've gone off on a cruise together. Couldn't Dad have softened the blow? If my Dad had told me sooner, I wouldn't have felt so…odd about it.

Anyway, who cares what I care. I'm supposed to be happy with everything I've got. I'm supposed to be happy full stop.

Well I'm not now, because Tala's not touched his food.  
"Tala, eat something,"

"Max-" he starts.  
"Tala. Eat," Kai says, in a low tone. Tala looks at him as if he's just slapped him. Just for note, when Tala looks like Kai's just slapped him, it's often not the hurt that shines through. It's the pure and genuine surprise and anger that show up on his face. Then the death-glare comes. Like it is now. It reminds me of one of Kai's glares at the end of his rather scary scale. The one just before the very ultimate one, that Tyson's called the: Oh-my-god-evacuate-the-building glare.

"No,"

This isn't going to end well.

"Tala, just-"  
"Shut up Max,"  
"Don't talk to him like that," Kai says, still in that flat voice. Tala replies in Russian, talking fast, which is never a good thing. Kai snaps something in return, and Tala's eyes darken with rage. Tala stands up, furious, and leaves. I let my head fall to the table, "You'll give yourself brain damage,"  
"At least I wouldn't have to get into another argument. What did you say to him?"  
"Max, he's just over-sensitive about food,"  
"Yes, I guessed that by now. Kai we've spent months trying to coach him eat again, and sometimes it works, and sometimes he just looks at us as if we've asked him to wrestle a shark. You used to have to force feed him. In fact, you still have to sometimes!"  
"He'll get better," Kai says, although I'm not comforted because he sounds distracted. He doesn't know it - ok, this is Kai, maybe he does - but I worry about both Tala _and_ him. Whatever happened with his Dad…well, Kai's just sort of edgy. It's like he expects something to leap out of no-where and attack him or Tala or myself. I wonder what happened. I try to ask Mr Dickenson but he just looks grave and says: Kai will tell you that when he's ready Max.

I've just been so stressed out about helping Tala, I suppose I sort of forgot about helping Kai out with his issues.  
And they're big, I'm guessing. I passed his room just last week to get a drink, my throat dry with thirst, and he was rolling around in bed, a look of anxiety and…I don't know, sort of…fear, on his face. I didn't wake him up because he'd probably lock me in the boiler room for walking in on him showing a weak moment.

* * *

Tala does a great impression of a skulking animal when he's brooding.

"Tala?"  
"What?"  
"I'm sorry,"  
"Sorry for what?"  
"Um…"  
"I'm not angry at you Max,"  
"You're angry at Kai then?"  
"To be honest I'm not angry at anyone,"

Well, that's a surprise. I always thought Tala had some sort of anger in some part of his mind every minute of the day. I would do, after knowing a guy like Boris.  
"Really? Then what's wrong?"  
He looks up, and for the first time I see the dark shadowing under his eyes, the way his look is a little glassy and fazed, and his hair is not just slightly more dishevelled than the norm, but badly.

"I'm just tired, Max,"  
"You're not eating,"  
"No. I know,"  
I sit down on his bed next to him.

These moments, where one of us tries to counsel the other. They can be awkward, particularly if you don't know what you're going on about. At first, when Tala had all this problem with eating food, I was stumped. I had no idea what to do. The first few months he, Kai and I lived together, it was a nightmare getting him to sit down with us at the table. He'd gladly prepare the food, but the minute any inclination came that either he, or anyone else, was going to start _eating_ the food, he'd leave the room. He couldn't even bare _watching_ people eat. It was a painstaking long amount of time before he sat down for meals with us. _Eventually_, he started eating bowls of cereal. But all that time I had little idea of what to do. It was like being dumped in the deep end of psychology. Whilst living with the guy. Don't even start me on Kai's nightmares on god-knows-what, and anger itching just under his skin at what his grandfather did to him.

I now know I can pretty much console both Kai and Tala. But I'm sure how effective I really am.  
"Why aren't you?"  
"I told you. I'm tired,"  
"That's got a lot to do with it?"

Tala doesn't say anything for a while. He's staring at the other side of the room, one hand laid over his stomach underneath his t-shirt. For some reason, I lean over and put my hand on top of his t-shirt where his own hand is. He gives me a funny look.

"What are you doing?"  
"Why do you do that?"  
"Do what?" he looks like Kai now. Like he's going to bolt any second because he expects me to take my hand and ram it down his throat or something.

"Put your hand over your stomach like that. Does it make you feel better?"

Tala looks down at his midriff, as if only just realising it existed, and made a small, non-committal noise.  
"Well?"  
"I don't know Max, I just do it,"  
There's a shadow at the door, and quicker than I can register the surprising lack of tension, Kai's sat on the other side of Tala to me. He looks at my hand, quirks an eyebrow, and his eyes rise to mine.

"I was just wondering why he did it," I say, lamely. There's a hint of a smirk on his face as he flicks both of our hands away from Tala's stomach.

"Mr Dickenson called. He says the media want to do a press conference about our 'new lifestyle'. The new BBA PR man thinks it's a good idea,"  
Fantastic. If Paul thinks it's a good idea, it's going to be hell on earth. He was the guy who said, to Kai's face, how he should be a little more like his grandfather if the public were going to make a decision on whether he was the bad-ass of the team or not. Kai had said something incredibly rude that I won't repeat in a very low, calm voice, then left the room. To be honest I thought he was going to nut him but I suppose looking back on it, that's not Kai's style.  
"Are you two going to make up?" I ask, cheerfully, out of the blue. Yes, there's a smirk on Tala's face!  
"Max, we don't make up,"  
"Really?"  
"No. We're too proud. I thought you'd lost the bulk of your naivety,"  
"I have. I think what did it was Tyson getting stuck on that NERD lyric: 'her ass is a spaceship I want to ride'. We nearly got kicked out of the Beyblade convention for that. Anyway, what do we want to do about this conference?"  
"If Paul the PR guy is going to suggest we do it, I say we don't,"

Even Tala, who hasn't yet had the sickly dread of dealing with Mr PR Man, agrees it's a bad idea.

"They'll turn it into a mother hen story,"  
"Ooh, whose the mother hen?"  
"None of us, idiot," Tala says. Wow. There's a little bit of affection in his voice, "None of us are mothers,"  
"Well, no, not in the literal sense,"  
Kai's smirk is wry and dry, "Yeah, but you are an amazing cook Tala,"  
Tala spins and twists his arm so quickly behind his back I've barely finished a blink. Kai's only in pain for a second, as he rolls with it, pinning Tala underneath him with his body weight on the arm still holding his wrist.

"Mother hen," Kai mocks.  
"You've got the right hair for it,"

I comment, stupidly. I'm swiped off the bed by a powerful kick onto the floor.

"Tala!"  
He pushes Kai off him so that they're both standing on the bed.

"Mother hen, eh?"  
"Of course you are," Kai folds his arms, smirk turning into a grin.

"You're going to pay for that Hiwatari,"  
"Sure mother,"

* * *

Well, that was a typical male bonding session back there. Play fighting.Surprisingly fun though. I alsolearnt how to do a good arm-lock, and the moves of punching someone solidly on the nose. I didn't get to try it out on anyone though. I did go through the move right at the end a little over-zealously, and if Kai wasn't such a trained fighter I might even had landed a blow, but he was safely out the way as swiftly as I hoped.  
"Just save that until you're mugged one day, Ok Max?"

* * *

The night wasn't as good as the evening though. They start talking about plans for my birthday, saying they have to get me something even though I insist they don't. We go to bed, and my good doesn't give in even when the boiler starts to make pathetic gurgling noises for no apparent reason.

But at about one in the morning, I hear this pain-filled noise coming from Kai's bedroom, like a cross between a howl and a cry and yelp. I run into his room and he's lying curled up on his side, all the muscles in his body visibly clenched, fists tight in his hair, forehead against his knees, and he's murmuring something in his sleep. Not knowing what else to do I sit on the floor next to his bed. When I get the chance I sneak a hand up and put it on Kai's head. I don't know, it used to make me feel better when I woke up from a nightmare and my Mum or Dad would lay with me and stroke my hair. That was when I was a kid though. When my parents were together.

The minute I start thinking about them, the tiredness in my body forces tears out of my eyes and I end up sobbing like a little baby into the edge of Kai's mattress. Which inevitably wakes him up. Which of course leads me to having to explain why I'm in his room. Which, stupidly, I can't do through all the choking and the hiccupping and the hitching breaths that I'm doing.

He pulls me up onto the bed, and I curl up pathetically on top of his sheets and cry onto his pillow. Coming to think about it, it smelt like him, which I suppose his pillow should do. I must have fallen to sleep because next time I open my eyes, it's three in the morning and both Tala and Kai are lying one either side of me. Dazedly, I look between the two of them, but they just give me a small smile each and tell me to go to sleep again.

When I insist on going back to my own bed they tell me not to be stupid and just go to sleep. I curl on my side, doing that awkward thing I do with my leg with my knee is drawn up so it's directly next to my shoulder, something that is undeniably comfortable (for me, anyway) and go straight to sleep, Kai and Tala's whispered conversation a nice, and lulling sound.

* * *

This is my last shot. The last decent café in the area. After this, it's bars. I don't even know how to make orange squash without spilling something, never mind a Manhattan or whatever it is you have to make behind a bar. It's ten in the morning and after spending a quiet breakfast with Kai and Tala, we've all gone our separate ways. And now here I am, outside Coffee Mucho, a little 'wanted' ad in my hand which I scraped from a newspaper that had been plastered to the window of a run-down shop. It was all scratty at the edges and my fingernail were filled with paper paste, but it should be worth it. I hope. And when I get back home, I have the delight of a talk about why I was crying like a little boy last night. Fun. (Although they did promise to start talking about what to get me for my birthday again…I like the attention).

Ok Max, now _breathe_. Just remember what you've been told: it's all in the smile.

The café is a little Italian place, the walls a dark brown like a coffee bean, and the waiters are all pretty tanned and dark haired. I feel out of place as I quietly introduce myself at the counter. The owner is brought forward, a Mr Daniel Carluccio1, a silver-haired man with a pronounced Australian accent.

"I'm not a real Aussie. Born in bred in Italy. But you get the accent when you live there for ten years,"

I smile and say I lived in Northern Ireland for a while when I was a kid, and almost immediately picked up that accent.

"Well it's nice to know I've got a travelled young man as a potential waiter!" he cries, slapping me on the back so hard it's like being hit with a barge pole, "Hey son, you look tired,"

Mr Carluccio peers over the counter, and I realise unnervingly his right eye is in fact a glass one. He interrupts his scrutinising of me to tap it and say, "I'm half deaf too. You'll have to speak up or I get the wrong end of the stick. It happens. I'm used to it,"

I hope to god he doesn't see the discreet redness at the corner at my eyes or the way my freckles stick out against my drained skin, as he leans in even closer.

I'm tired, yeah, I'm exhausted.

"It's nothing. I've just had a hard day,"  
He looks at me funny, with a sort of blank expression, then goes: Oh, as if only just comprehending, and leans back behind the counter. I obviously look confused, because he just shakes his head and goes:  
"Sorry kid, just thought you said: I've just had a hard-on,"

Oh.

Why? Lord, Buddha, the water deities, whatever….why?

* * *

**AS**: Hehe, I'm sorry, I just had to end on that. Poor Max. PLEASE REVIEW! I absolutely love reviews, I have an addiction to them, and the ones I've got so far are so nice that I'd love to welcome more! 


	4. Chapter 4

AS: Sorry I'm so late updating!

Thanks to **DaCow Takao** who got me all encouraged to write this chapter!

* * *

Mr Carluccio offered me the job. It was a pretty long interview, particularly since he lost the jist of every sentence I uttered: 

"I travelled,"  
"You like gravel?"

It went on like that for a while but _eventually_, he gave me the job. Maybe he's not the ideal boss, but at least I've got a boss.

When I got home afterwards, Tala was idly watching television whilst Kai was lying stretched out on the floor reading. Why do I call it home? It's not exactly my _real_ home. My real home is with my Dad really, although I do stay with my Mum on occasion. 'Stay' being the operative word, I hardly move in when I eventually get there. The kids on the other apartment on Mum's floor call me: Holiday Kid. I know that because I've heard them talking about me, wondering if I'll be taking up my usual spot on the concrete square bollards in the parking lot, brooding whilst I'm thinking about life. I think it's somewhere they play, because usually my title of 'Holiday Kid' is followed by something vicious, and usually a prod at my blonde hair.

"Why are you on the floor Kai?"  
"He dared take the remote from me," Tala said, simply, before switching the TV off.

"So, did you get a job?"  
"Yes!" I beamed, "At an Italian coffee place,"  
"Well done Max," they both said simultaneously. That wasn't plain scary. I flopped down on the sofa next to Tala.

"You're allowed back on the sofa now, Kai," he says, haughtily, patting the seat next to him. Kai completely ignores him.

"We're getting a visit from a social worker today," Kai mentions, into the silence.

Since I was little, when I get a very sudden bout of panic or fear, for some reason, I just stop breathing. It's not a good thing. I discovered that it _really _isn't a good thing, when you've just learnt to swim, you lose sight of your Dad behind a little wave and see what you swear is a jelly fish. Because you stop breathing and you sink like a pebble. Luckily, my Dad was actually just a few inches to my right, crouched down, and the minute the wave passed us he grabbed me and hoisted me out of the water.

Maybe it's not life and death right now since I'm high-and-dry in my apartment on the sofa, but the reflex still, worryingly, kicks in.

"Max, you've gone blue, what's wrong?"

I eventually started breathing when they talked me out my little blind panic. And Tala rubbing my back and waving Draciel in front of me, which worked for some reason.

"It's Ok Max, they're not going to do anything, just make sure we're not dying of rickets,"  
All I can do is nod and gasp.

"What happened to you?"  
"I just…"

"He panics and he can't breathe,"

How does Kai know that? I must have said that out loud or something, because he continues: "If you remember, that day we got that call from the hospital in Italy telling us Tyson had been hit by a bus?"

I nod weakly, "Yeah, well, you did that then," he says by way of explanation, and goes to get me a drink of water.  
"Tyson got hit by a bus?"  
I should tell Tala off for sounding so jubilant, but I don't have the strength nor the mental capacity.

"Kenny mis-interpreted the Italian man. He actually said there was a large pizza to be delivered to Tyson Granger and could we buzz him in,"

Tala starts to snigger. I hit him on the shoulder, "It wasn't funny,"  
"Well, with you on the floor like a goldfish out of water and Tyson about to stuff his face full of food, when you all think he's just got a face full of a bus, just makes me laugh,"  
"You're sick," I say, before taking the drink, "Why do we have to have a visit from social workers?"

"Like I said, just to make sure we're not living in our own filth,"  
I try to get one of them to ring Mr Dickenson and persuade him not to come, but I don't think either of them like him. I think they count him responsible in some way to what's happening to them right now. Kai's a little more considerate and polite when it comes to Mr Dickenson's stand in things. Tala just openly hates him. He's rude about everything Mr Dickenson does. He seems to think Mr D sees us as a charity case he needs to take under his wing for a good image. I'm not going to even get involved in that argument, because it will make my life hell.

Mr Dickenson rings to say they're on their way, and I practically fly to the phone to get there first, but unfortunately Tala gets their.

"Hello?...No…Why?...because you're a fat old man, and you don't understand,"  
Why do we let Tala answer the phone? Well, actually, we don't. Kai and I strive to get their first. There's only about three people we let Tala talk to on the phone: Bryan, Spencer and Rei. That's because the three of them are the more understanding of our friends and won't take offence when he calls them a name. Tala has very little social grace. He doesn't know when not to say things, or not to say certain things at all. He just doesn't understand why he can't say whatever pops into his mind. I suppose it's from having little social interaction as a child, and until the championships, not really mixing with lots of different kids with different lives. I mean, he stayed in the abbey with lots of others, but they were all Beybladers too, and most of them brainwashed. I don't think the coma helped either. The coma, come to think about it, was the worst thing to happen to Tala at that particular time in his life.

"Tala, give me the phone," he hands it over reluctantly and skulks off, to where Kai has got the remote and the sofa in the living room. Tala says something in a dangerously calm voice in their home language before there's a 'thump' of something hitting the sofa hard, and a lot of scuffling.

"Mr Dickenson?"  
"Oh, Max?"  
"Yes, it's me. Um…sorry about that, Tala's just a bit…grumpy today,"

"Yes," Mr D mumbles, knowing too well that Tala's mouths off like that all the time, "I was just wanting to tell you that we'll be arriving shortly. I didn't want it to be a surprise,"  
"Well, you told Kai, Sir, and he told me,"  
"Oh," he sounded surprised, "When I told Kai I just assumed-"  
"That he wouldn't tell me?"

Before, for example a year or two ago, I would have just laughed and said: so I would actually. But now…that _really_, really annoys me, "Mr Dickenson, Kai does talk you know. He's not a mute, and he's not stupid,"  
"I wasn't implying-"  
"I'll see you soon Sir,"

I put the phone down hard. Ugh, now even I'm annoyed with the man. I know he's trying to do his best but he really isn't helping himself with acting like that.

* * *

The social services are here. When Kai said: a social worker, I thought that that meant _one_ social worker. Not a swarm of them. Well, three. One is skulking around the house as if they're checking for bombs, taking careful note of things on a clipboard I'm dying to get my hands on. I stalked him for a while, until Tala pulled me aside and told me not to be so paranoid. The other two social workers were sat being chummy in the kitchen, at first talking to Mr Dickenson but then starting to ask up questions.  
"So, what's it like living in this sort of arrangement?" 

Tolerable. Occasionally fun. Now leave.

Tala snapped something. It must have been rude, because Kai looked up and went: Tala, in a warning tone, like a mother whose just heard their son say something coarse but thankfully was the only one. I look between the two of them, and realised nothing entirely civil was going to occur in this room.

"It's good," I say, croakily, into the long silence. Kai and Tala are complete mirror images of disgust and disapproval. You can see it in their manner, even though their faces are pretty much emotionless. They're sat on either side of me, legs crossed, arms folded, faces turned to opposite sides of the room. I swear they're blood related.

"But what's it like being responsible for the washing, the laundry, the shopping, occasional bills. Do you find it hard? Too much of a responsibility because of your age?"

I swallow hard, and look between Kai and Tala, who are both as rigid as statues and just as talkative.

"No," I say, in a small voice. The social workers look at me intently for a bit, and I try not to fidget.  
"Hmmm," one says, slowly.

"What about Kai and Tala? You're being very silent boys,"  
This isn't going to go well.

I hope the social workers weren't too offended at what Tala called them. I won't repeat it, because it's too rude, and reliving the whole experience is too excruciating. The adults eventually left the building, not looking too convinced about anything.

The minute the door shut behind them I rounded, seething, on Kai and Tala.

"You two were a fat lot of good!"  
Kai raised an eyebrow. Tala just rolled his eyes.

"Did you _want_ them to hate you or something!"  
"No,"  
"Well then why did you behave like that!"  
"Like what?" Tala sighed, as the two moved into the lounge, me following waving my arms about and stressing.

"Like _that_! Like you did just then! It's not going to get us anywhere,"

"Max, sit down, and calm down. The social services can't do much about us with Mr Dickenson and a multi-million dollar company backing us up, now can they?"  
I lost the argument after that. Despite all my points about how they could put the three of us in care homes or something, they squashed my side of the debate. I sat in between them on the sofa and watched a film begrudgingly with them. They wanted to talk about what I wanted for my birthday but I wasn't in the mood.

* * *

I started working at the restaurant that weekend, and was just about managing a new environment. The job didn't exactly require rocket science, or any skill in fact at all, which mean I could just about do it successfully. The other people were nice, although a lot of them were Mr Carluccio's family and very close with each other. I had half an hour until I got to take off, when I caught two familiar figures sat at a corner table. 

"What are you guys doing here?"

Tala gave me a slightly unnerving smile, "We came to say hello,"  
"Yes, I can see that…why?"  
Tala gave a faint shrug and looked out of the window.  
"Kai, tell me? Has something happened?"

* * *

Why, the minute I walk in the door, am I swamped by water? Tala sloshes his way over to kitchen and points towards the sink. 

"The tap jammed. Kai and I couldn't do anything about it. Even when we turned it off the pressure was too much. It's still going. And it started when you left this morning,"  
"Didn't you call someone!"  
"The plumber we got for the boiler was on his lunch hour, and the secretary said he usually doesn't come back after that. We tried another guy, but he was busy,"

I stood and stared at the water lapping around my shins, completely soaking my shoes and socks and the bottom of my jeans.

"This is unbelievable,"  
"We'll get it fixed Max," Kai said, making his way as quick as you can practically knee-deep in water, to the living room. As Tala began to follow him, the phone rang. I dived for it, hoping it was one of the plumbers.

"Hello?"  
"Hey, Maxy!"  
Dad?  
"Hey. Is that you Dad?"  
"Yes, it's me! How are you?"  
I had to cover my other ear to hear him properly. The line crackled and fizzed.

"I'm…I'm fine. Dad where are you, I can't hear you very well?"  
"Oh, sorry. I brought a new cell phone and we're in the middle of this _really_ busy street. I didn't want to talk in the middle of the café. How are things?"  
I look down at the bills bobbing on top of the water past my feet.

"Um…they're goin Ok,"  
"Good! How's your job?"  
I swallowed hard. I should tell the truth. I mean, he's my Dad. He'll understand that I was just having a bad day, and appreciate that I got myself back up on my feet with no-one else's help.

"It's really good,"

I'm going to go to hell.  
"Well, glad to hear you're managing. How is living with Kai and Tala?"

At that moment, one of them falls of the sofa and there's a loud 'splash' as they hit the sink over-flow that is currently creeping all around the flat.

"It's…fun,"  
"Are you in the bath or something Max?"  
"Oh, that splash? Ha, no, it's nothing, it's just we've got the sink full of water to clean all the dishes up and Kai just dropped a bar of…soap in there. No I wouldn't be in the bath Dad, we can't afford one of those phones without the wire…"  
Why am I making myself sound desperate, poor, and ungrateful?

"Not that that's a bad thing. I mean now…now we don't lose the phone. Do we?"  
Dad laughed, and a car horn blared in the background.

"No, I suppose you don't. Your next bit of money's in the post, by the way. I hope it's useful,"  
I watch as the remote comes floating gently out of the living room.

"Yes. It probably will be Dad. Thanks,"  
"Well, anyway, I'm probably draining my account with this conversation. I just wanted to know that you were doing Ok. I thought it'd be nice to _talk_ to you for once,"  
"Yeah, it's good to hear from you,"  
"Marla sends her love, by the way,"

Marla? Oh, yes, the girlfriend.

"Oh…cool,"  
"I'd better go, she's got a table in the café. Talk to you soon son,"  
"Oh, yeah, bye Dad. No! Actually, wait, don't go. If…if by chance you manage to get a tap that's just spurting water and won't stop…what do you do?"  
"Is that happening right now?"  
I decide to use Tala's approach to being asked a direct question about something he may get into trouble/be blamed/be shouted at for:

"Maybe,"  
"I'd get a plumber in. And get the towels ready,"  
Well that was useful.

"And whatever you do, don't try and bung the tap up, Ok Max? Or the whole thing will explode,"

To call on the American in me, I shall respond: Well duh. Did he really think I was going to try that? You know, blow up the water system in my apartment just for kicks?

"Yes, well, I did think of that,"  
"Well, good luck with this possible sink problem. Bye Max,"  
"Bye Dad,"

* * *

"You just had a phone conversation with him,"  
"I know," 

"You say that like it's a bad thing,"  
"He mentioned his girlfriend. Marlene or Marla or Maud or something,"  
"You're jealous, Max,"  
"What!"  
I look up so quickly I nearly fall off the sofa, which would be a dangerous thing to do. It's slowly going on one o' clock, and the gushing from the tap has softened to a steady stream, but it's still filling up the apartment like a water balloon. Kai is perched on the footstool cross-legged, seeing as there's no other space for him to go without retreating to the windowsill. A dingy would be better though, because Kai has to keep rearranging his legs to stop from leaning to one side and toppling into the water. Kai's got good balance, but the piddly little footstool wasn't meant to be used as an island. At this rate, the next call we make will be for the Coastguard.

"You're jealous Max,"  
"Jealous of who!"  
"Your Dad's girlfriend. She gets to spend time with him, whilst you're stuck in New York without even your mother,"

It's a blunt and sort of insensitive way of putting it. But instead of flaring up, the minute I hear Tala say that want to cry. My bottom lips doing that wobbling thing it used to do when I was five and couldn't keep my scoops of ice cream securely on the cone.

"Max, it's perfectly natural to feel jealous,"  
"I don't care whether it's natural or not,"

"Well maybe you don't, but when you stop sulking you will,"

I hit Tala with the remote (fished out from under the kitchen table in a perilous mission to get a snack) and splash upstairs. I don't get a minute's peace though. The minute I get upstairs and into the foetal position on my bed; Tala and Kai are in the room.

"What do you want?"

"Tala's going to apologise," Kai says. Tala apologises as quickly as possible, and then the two of them are on my bed, like they were that morning when they woke me up with coffee and an argument about overcooking toast.

"It's fine," I say, in response to Tala's apology. If I was with the Bladebreakers back at the dojo, this probably would have been resolved now. Tyson would have made some comment about needing food, we all would have joked around a bit, and I would have felt better. But living arrangements were different now. Every argument or bad word couldn't be broken by a freshly cooked meal by the adult of the house, or where the only responsibility I had was to help clear away the plates and making my bed in the morning. It was difficult now. Which made feeling like this so hard.

"I am jealous," I say into the silence. They don't say anything, so I go on, "I'm jealous because she gets to spend all this time with my Dad, and when I can't, I can't even enjoy spending time with my Mum. And…she's making it more and more possible that my Mum and Dad are never going to get back together,"

They're silent again, and I do that mental-counting thing which stops me from making an idiot of myself.

"My parents never got back together,"

I know it's Kai who says this, but I have to wait a while before my brain fully digests this. I turn my face away from the pillow and up to Kai, who is sat leaning against my headboard. I look at Tala, sat at my feet, whose also got his eyes on Kai, although not in disbelief and shock like me.

"What?"  
"My parents never got back together. I always thought they would do. But they never did,"  
I knew less than nothing about Kai's personal life, apart from the fact he likes Oreos. Just knowing Kai had parents was a start!  
"They split up?"

Kai doesn't look at me when he says this, so I can guess we're not going to have an open heart to heart about the subject.  
"When I was five. I don't really remember. But suddenly I was living in two different houses, and my parents weren't staying together in either of them,"  
Pretty similar to the way it happened with me. Although I was nine at the time and knew some labels and background information attached to the word: divorce.

"Why did they split up?" I ask, tentatively.

"I never asked. I suppose they just couldn't stand each other anymore. By the time I was old enough to understand and ask, I didn't want to know,"  
"Do you still see your parents?" I'm treading out of the small ring we're in here. The one that consists of information being shared because it could help comfort me. I'm pulling him out of that and putting him into a much bigger one that consists of information being shared because I'm being a nosey-parker. But he doesn't glare or tell me to get lost and stalk off. He just says, still not looking at me, "No. Not anymore,"  
The doorbell goes off in the distance. At first I don't hear it, but when Kai moves and I lift my head, I can hear that someone is practically leaning on the poor thing. Kai goes to see who it is, and I'm left with Tala.  
"He doesn't see them anymore? Why not?" I ask, sitting up. Tala's very still. It's not unusual with Tala. But his eyes have never really looked like that before. They're not glaring for a start. They're looking like they do when he wakes me up in the mornings.  
"Kai's grandfather took Kai in when his parent's divorce became messy. Kai was only seven or so. When Kai's parents, and their new partners, were all quietened down, Kai was going on eleven. He just didn't know his parents anymore. And now they were with new families, and Kai had lived a whole part of his life without them. He just…didn't know them much anymore,"  
"So he stayed with Voltaire?"  
Tala nodded, eyes fixed on the doorway, listening to Kai splash up the front door.

"It's not the most dramatic thing in the world. Why Kai doesn't speak to his parents isn't anything like the stories I've heard you and your team come up with,"  
I blush violently. I admit it, we _did_ have a sort of brainstorming session as to the smaller details of Kai's past.

"He just grew up away from them. Kai never liked his father either. It was him who started it all off: walking out on his mother and everything,"

Tala sounds sad now. Which has never happened before. I crawl over and sit next to him, pretending to be spying for our new caller.  
"Why is this information being divulged, may I ask?" I enquire, trying to lighten the mood. And I guess it does, because Tala looks at me and smirks, "It was never a secret Maxy,"  
"Why did Kai never tell us before then?"  
He got up and made his way to the doorway.

"You guys just never asked him,"

* * *

That night, I hear Tala going downstairs. It's late and I come around groggily for no apparent reason. Oh, no, wait, there's a pigeon hitting my window repeatedly. Stupid bird. I flap the pigeon away, then crane over the banister to see downstairs. I can just see Tala's shadow, shaky and rippling over the water surface. The tap's slowed to a hesitant drip now, and it doesn't cover up the sound of the coffee maker being shunted into life. I can hear him make his way to the kitchen table and sit down heavily in a chair. Then there's silence for a while, and my arms start to go numb and I begin to fall back to sleep. I creep back into my room and curl up under the duvet, hearing nothing coming from Kai's room. Before I go back to sleep, I start to think about why Tala looked sort of wistful when we talked about Kai's parents. And who that person at the door was. The _minute_ I got downstairs, Kai had shut the door. When I had asked, I'd gotten a blank expression and a few moments silence before being completely ignored. Tomorrow I may hide the coffee machine, and _make_ them tell me.

* * *

AS: Sorry if this chapter was a little boring. It was a bit of a 'fill-er-inner'...which isn't a word but sort of makes sense.

Review please!


	5. Chapter 5

**DaCow Takao: **Woo, go team…we need to think of a name

**If I say I love you: **Why thank ye

**Black Panther: **Thank you, and I'll try too

**Whyamidoingthis01: **Thank you! I'm always worried about fillers…

**Cinnamon Butternuts: **Thank you for the conscientious review. It's nice to know my fic isn't so-so. I'd like a beta-reader, but my head's too full of stuff to make a decision right now. You may have to email me again about any specifics he-he, and thank you so much for the offer!

It's sort of shot and it's not so good, but the next one will be longer and better. I tried to edit this to put in line breaks and things, but the Edit/Preview wasn't working, so I apologise. no line breaks. Big spaces won't even work. I'll jut put letters in intead

PPPPPPPPPPPP

"No biting!"  
When Tala fights, he fights dirty. Kai told me it was his upbringing in the Abbey; it didn't matter how you won so long as you did. I asked Kai why _he_ didn't fight dirty, and he just said: "How do you know I don't?"

Which is true. I've seen Kai fight in the Beydish, but that's about it. When it comes to hand-on-hand combat, I don't know how dirty Kai fights.

"_You_ just bit me!"  
"I was just making a point,"  
"No you weren't Kai. Liar,"  
They're fighting in the kitchen now. If I was really interested as to how the Great Hiwatari fought, I would be in there observing. But instead, I'm out here in the hallway, waiting for the carpet-cleaners to arrive. We managed to slosh all of the water out of the house, and now the carpets look like they've been shampooed with mud and dirty water. Which they have, actually. The plumber told us that the water gushing from the taps came straight from the rain water tank which wasn't meant to be hooked anywhere near our water system, but - for some strange reason - was. So not only did we get swamped with water, we got swamped with dirty water. The plumber told us we should probably go to the doctors to make sure we didn't contract anything from the filthy water, as he was sure that rain tank was the place they had poured a few buckets of the sewage water when a pipe had burst earlier on in the year. And that tank hadn't been emptied from the tank for close to eight years. But that's this afternoon. This _morning_ it's the carpet cleaners.

I've got the cheque clutched in my hand and I'm not letting it go. It's the last of the money from my Dad, and I don't really want to part with it. Then again, I don't want rain-and-sewage-water carpets.

We got up early this morning to clear away all the furniture from the rooms with carpets. We hauled it upstairs and balanced the sofa on the stairs. Everything seems very bare, and it makes me shiver. It's like we've already been kicked out of the apartment and out into the big world on our own.

Kai appears behind me, the carpet squelching beneath his sock-clad feet. I can just tell one of us is going to have some water-born disease. I can just see it now.

"What are you two fighting over?"  
"The first one to the coffee machine,"  
"Who won?"

He doesn't answer me; instead he changes the subject, "When did they say they'd be here?"  
"The carpet cleaners? About now. I think we should just go upstairs whilst they're doing it. To avoid any questions,"  
"Sounds good to me,"  
I didn't mean right now, but he still disappears upstairs. Tala then appears in the hall, a steaming cup of coffee in my hand. He stands close to me and I inhale that amazing coffee smell.

"So you won the fight over the coffee machine?"  
"Are you really that surprised?"  
"No. You fight dirty,"

He smiles benignly, "That's the only way too fight. Anyway, I can start to smell the sewage in the water, so I'm going to go for a bath,"  
"How long are you going to be?"  
"Until the smell goes away,"  
"Oh. Ok then,"  
And I'm left on my own. Perfect. But since when did I volunteer to be the house mother? Those two are older than me anyway.

Oh God, you really can smell the sewage in that water!

PPPPPPPPP

I'm wallowing in the bath, soaking off all that disgusting sewage-and-rain-water smell. And believe me, there is a specific smell like that, and it's not nice. Our Doctor's appointment is in half an hour, but I don't want to get out just yet. I'm thinking about what Tala and I talked about last night when Kai went to answer the door. I found out some good stuff, but I completely forgot about Kai's Dad.

"Stop it!"  
What is _with_ them today? Tala and Kai just won't stop fighting! I don't want to know how they got on in the Abbey, and how the others around them didn't try and strangle them on a daily basis. Mixed in with Bryan, I can only imagine how much they fought sometimes. They're like the Blitzgrief boys…ha-ha! I can't believe I just laughed at my own joke.

I also can't believe that they're still fighting. They fought over the coffee machine, over the toaster, over the remote, over the phone, over something Kai said Tala broke, over something Tala said Kai said. It just goes on and on and on. I thought those two were meant to be happily glued to the hip?

Oh. God. Something's just crashed to the floor.  
"That was mine!"  
"I'm _sorry_!"  
"No, you're not!"  
I think I may just submerge myself under the water for a minute or two….

"Oh my God!"  
"What?"  
"Tala! What are you doing in here? You were downstairs a second ago,"

"Well I only came to use the bathroom but when I knocked on the door and got no response I came in. And at first I thought you were drowning but then…you came up. You must have been under there for a while. Your lips were turning blue,"  
"That doesn't explain why you're still here,"  
Tala shrugged, "I argued with Kai. And I have no-where else to do because he's taking his stuff from my room,"  
"Why is his stuff in your room?"  
"There's a few boxes of it. When we moved in he didn't have that shelf so he asked me to keep them for him until he did,"  
I sighed and leant back in the bathtub. I wasn't going to get rid of Tala. And I wasn't that embarrassed, seeing as I was practically choking on bubble-bath.  
"Are you really that neurotic about people seeing you naked in the bath?"

"No. It's just that I knocked an entire bottle in here. I don't even know what it was doing near the bath, it's usually kicked under the sink,"

"Oh. I put it there. I was bouncing the cap off the wall the last time I had a bath,"  
So _that_ was what that noise was.

"Tala, what do you want to talk about?"  
"I don't want to talk about anything,"  
"Then why are you here?"  
He doesn't reply. All I wanted to do was sit here and got through some stuff in my head. And now I have a silent invitation from Tala to probe his own mind so we can sort out some of the stuff in his head. And when I mean: 'some stuff', I mean just that. Tala a) doesn't want people to know most of the things that bother him, and b) has too many scary things going on in that head. I, on the other hand, am seen as the kind of person who likes to share their feelings. I'm seen, in the Bladebreakers, as the blonde boy who only thinks about how to win a match of where the next supply of sugar is going to be coming from. I'm the happy one.

"Max, you're slowly sinking,"

"Tala, what do you want! Honestly. Do you want to talk about why you and Kai have been arguing? Do you want me to side with you and go and tell Kai to pack it in? Do you want me to tell you that I'm not mad with the fact you two don't stop going at each other's throats every minute of the day? Or are you really pathetically lonely enough to just sit here and annoy me?"

I always used to play animal games when I was a little kid. I always enjoyed being an animal, because they looked happy and cosy and content. Seeing as I based all my knowledge of animals on my kittens Boo and Heidi(1), it wasn't until I was nine and watched something on the National Geographic channel about big cats, and saw them tear other animals to pieces, did I stop playing animal games. Or, if I ever did play them, I would never want to be the smaller animal, in case one of the kids playing a more powerful animal wanted to play 'hunt'. So I never got to see what it's like, even remotely, to be pinned by the eyes of an animal that wants to kill you.

Now I do.

And I'm not going to feel guilty about comparing Tala to an animal, because his eyes are more wolfish than any other's I've ever seen. And right now they're making me feel like he's about to jump me and rip my jugular from my neck.

He storms out of the bathroom, leaving the air very, _very_ cold behind him, and slams the door shut.

I'm definitely going to be feeling guilty about that.

PPPPPPPPPP

"Tala won't speak to me,"

"That's because you were an idiot,"

"I love coming to you for advice," I mumble, staring at the wall. Kai and I are stuck in the nasty-smelling hospital, whilst Tala's in the doctor's office probably getting tested for any water-born diseases. Kai's reading a book he brought along with him, seeing as he's last on the list.

"But…I didn't mean it. And I don't really think what I said was…_that_ bad,"  
"You said: Or are you _really pathetically lonely_ enough to just _sit here_ and _annoy_ me?"  
"Yes but...I didn't think he'd really be that angry,"

Kai puts his book down and gives me a full on look. Which means he's not about to comfort me and give me conformation that it wasn't my fault.

"Max, there are a few things that you shouldn't say to Tala. One of them is pointing out something he already knows about his un-fun predicament right now,"

"But-"  
"Would you like it if I pointed it out to you that you were so insanely jealous of your father's new girlfriend and so confused about what you want from him and your mum, that you can barely see how lucky you are?"  
"What?"  
"No. Exactly. We don't need each other to put a light on all the things that are wrong right now,"

I just sit there and my mouth does a goldfish movement.

"I didn't mean he was pathetic. Or that he was lonely. It was just. It came out wrong. I…I didn't even think there was a problem with Tala being _lonely_-"  
"Then why did you say it?"  
"Because he wasn't talking to you! I figured that he was feeling a bit left out because he was arguing with you and so…and so he didn't-"  
Oh God. I feel dirty and cheap all over. Tala was missing his friends, his team mates, and I practically made fun of him for it. And the disgusting thing is that I knew it too. At the back of my mind. Why don't I listen to myself anymore?

"I didn't mean to be so harsh,"  
"Hn," is all Kai says, and he goes back to his book.  
"Your turn,"  
Either Tala has got really good at sneaking around, or I'm way too self-absorbed. Considering the streak I've been having recently, I'd say it was the latter.

Please don't tell me he heard even _part_ of that last conversation.  
"Ok,"

I get up and try not to look at him, because I'd know straight away if he heard me.

The Doctor told us that none of us had caught anything from the dirty water so far, but that we would have to come and have a check up in a week or so, and go to the hospital straight away if any signs of illness show themselves. I may just pretend to feel faint and get checked into the hospital right away, because I don't feel like going home and being stuck in that apartment. I don't have work today, so I can't use that as an excuse.

"Well that's a relief then, isn't it boys?"  
Mr Dickenson's come to pick us up in one of his shiny black cars I used to love him sending to pick us up. It made me feel like a celebrity. Now I'm too depressed to notice.

The driver seems to be going achingly slow, and Mr Dickenson is just trying too hard to be cheerful. Kai grunts in response, and I go back to staring out of the window. If a grunt doesn't field a concerned question then what does?

"You three seem pretty down. It wasn't the social services call was it?"  
"Hn,"  
"Because none of you seemed very pleased with that. I was only trying to help the social services see what a good group you are for each other, and how you're getting along in that flat all by yourselves in a completely healthy, and productive way. I think they were happy with what they saw,"  
Think?

We draw up at the apartment block and I leap out of the car. Mr Dickenson, thankfully, doesn't follow us to the apartment, and we make our way up to our floor in silence. Once inside, we go to our respective rooms, shut the door, and everything's quiet.

I brave going down to the kitchen at about half past eight. The carpets are all fluffy and warm but are a little off-colour, and there's a funny smell. I open all the downstairs windows and get myself a drink. I notice that there's no dirty pots in the sink or anything. No-one's made themselves dinner. I retreat back upstairs, and, as I pass, realise Kai's bedroom door is half open. I can't help it, and I peek inside. Empty. Tala's door is firmly shut. And I guess the pair of them are behind there.

I cannot believe I said that to Tala.

PPPPPPPPPP

I wake up the next morning and really, really don't want to get out of bed. I don't want to get out of bed at the best of times, but after yesterday, I _really_ don't want to set foot out of this tiny cocoon I'm in. Hmm…something smells nice.

No! Max, don't let yourself get enticed by nice smells and the prospect of Tala's cooking. And I must remember not to eat anything of his until I've apologised, because it'll probably have a drop of a cyanide in it somewhere.

I look blearily over at my calendar. Wow. Not long until my birthday. Two days, in fact.

"Not that you deserve it or anything," someone (Tala) says from the doorway, "But breakfast is on the table. And there's also someone at the table for you,"  
I sit up and frown.  
"Tala?"  
"Hm?"  
"I'm sorry,"  
"Really?"  
"Yes,"  
We remain in am awkward silence for a while. And then Tala leaves, and I don't think that means he's forgiven me. I slouch downstairs because I haven't eaten for hours and my stomach is eating itself. There's a postcard on the hall table beside the small pile that makes up Kai's post, with: '_Happy Birthday Maxy_'written on the back. That better be because the post was early delivering, and not because he got my birthday date wrong.

I make my way into the kitchen, trying not to screw up the postcard in my hand.

There were three people sat at the kitchen table. The third with black hair.

"Hey Max,"  
"Rei?"

PPPPPPPPPPPP

Next time: Max and Tala clash, and Rei helps Max celebrate his birthday


	6. Chapter 6

Thanks for the reviews everyone! The damn linebrekas on Edit/Preview STILL doesn't work so it's going to be seperated with the letter SSSS

SSSSSSSSSSS

It's all in the smile. If you've got a good one, and mix it in with an appropriate expression in your eyes, you can get what you want. Unfortunately, an angry Tala is a Tala made of pure, unmoveable, wrought-iron steel. And he doesn't respond to a smile, nor the puppy dog eyes. He's giving me one of his 'steel' looks across the table right now. It makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end and my stomach clench like someone _very_ angry has got a hold on it.  
"Have you two fallen out or something?" Rei whispered as quietly as he could.

"How did you guess?" I sighed, as Tala left the breakfast table the minute I sat down after greeting Rei. Kai raises his eyebrows and moves over to the coffee machine which he seems to have made good friends with. It would explain why he's spent a lot of time there these days.

"I…we fell out,"  
"Oh. What about?"

Kai pours himself his _third_ cup of coffee and disappears into the living room. He has ears like a primed wildcat though, so I lead Rei out of the kitchen and up to my room. I notice that Tala's bedroom door is shut, so I make sure to shut my own securely. If Kai has ears like a primed wildcat, Tala has ears like a genetically enhanced primed wildcat. Oh…maybe I shouldn't play with the whole 'genetic enhancement' thing around Tala. Arrgh! Why am I subconsciously insulting Tala! I don't _mean_ too! Oh God I'm a horrible person.

"What's wrong then? I like your room,"  
"Thanks. I insulted Tala. Pretty badly. And now I feel really guilty,"  
"I didn't know you insulted people Maxy. I recognise that comforter, I thought it was Kai's?"  
"He let me borrow it, I got chocolate all over mine. And I didn't _mean_ to insult him! I don't want to upset Tala,"

_Eventually _Rei was concentrated on the subject at hand and not milling around my room inspecting things: "Well what did you say? I didn't think Tala could be so easily upset,"  
"I…I sort of implied he had no friends to wait around on since he and Kai had argued. That he was only talking to me because he was lonely. And it didn't help, considering all the stuff with his team,"  
"The Blitzkrieg boys?"  
I thought it wasn't an appropriate time to tell him my new nickname for them: the Blitzgrief boys.

"Yeah. Kai's told me that Tala misses them. A lot. He's never been separated from them before. He told me Mr Dickenson wanted the split to be as quick as possible. 'Like a band aid',"

"That's unfair. They grew up together,"  
"I know. I think he's having Abbey withdrawal symptoms,"

I decide not to go into it right now and change the subject.

"So, anyway. How long are you here for? It's so good to see you again,"

"I'm here until two days after your birthday. Then I'm going back to China," he said, pulling a slight face.

"What's wrong with that?"  
"It's tense back home. My Grandmother had 'a vision' saying that Mariah and Kevin were going to marry and have kids,"  
"Wow," I said, wincing.

"Exactly. And my grandmother's premonitions might as well be law. Mariah's nearly hysterical and Kevin's just very pale. Mariah's parents are wringing their hands and Kevin's are just elated. And me…people are looking funny at me now. Like I've just fallen from my thrown,"

Poor Rei. He's told me a lot about his home life. How he and Mariah are considered 'the couple' of the village, who are going to be 'the definitive thread to a health and prosperous new generation'. Whenever Rei talked about that he looked like he'd been hit in the head with a sledgehammer.

"Oh,"  
"Exactly. I don't _really_ want to go home,"  
"That why you came then?" I joked, throwing myself onto the bed next to him.  
"No," he laughed, "Kai rang me to invite me for your birthday and I said yeah. We're all going birthday present shopping for you tomorrow, by the way,"  
"Should be fun. Rather you than me,"

SSSSSSSSSSSS

I'm completely submerged in the bath. I've just had another embarrassing experience with the shower, meaning I was caught hopping with my towel barely around my waist out of the bathroom with a wave of cold air following me. The shower was _freezing_. It even made little fluffy clouds of cold, and they floated out of the shower and into the bathroom.

Anyway, now I'm in this nice hot bath and it's warm and cosy and I don't have to listen to them all talking happily downstairs, because the sound doesn't carry so well anyway, nevermind that I'm underwater. I've got to admit it, I'm jealous. I can't talk with Tala, Kai and Rei, because Tala's in the room, and Tala obviously doesn't want to be in the same room as me ever again. I tried apologising to him when I cornered him on the stairs but he brushed past me like one of the cold-clouds in the evil-shower, and it made me fall down a few steps.

I come up out of the water, big rivers of it streaming down my shoulders and hair, and try not to scream like a girl when I see Kai sat on the window-sill, legs propped up on the toilet seat.

"Kai!"  
"What?"  
I sit there and gasp for a moment, "Were you and Tala brought up in a _barn_ or something?"  
"No, the Abbey, but I suppose it's very similar,"  
"Very funny,"

We sit in silence for a while. I try not to look embarrassed, and Kai doesn't do much.  
"Kai?"

"Hm?"  
"What did you want?"  
"I wanted to talk to you,"  
"About what? Tala? Because I want to say I'm sorry to him but he won't give me the chance,"  
"Yeah, about that,"  
"It's…he won't let me say I'm sorry,"  
"I don't think he knows that you understand what you've got to say you're sorry for,"  
"What?" I blink.  
"Tala thinks that you don't know why what you said upset him so much,"  
"But…I did. Well, as much as I can know. It's about the Blitz-"  
"You've got to show Tala that you know. Or he's not going to forgive you,"  
"Speaking from experience?"  
"Speaking from thirteen years of experience," he slides down from the windowsill and leans against the sink. When the team used to reside at the dojo, Kai was known for being able to defuse arguments as well as start them. He did the latter when it involved Tyson, and the first when it involved anyone else. He used to say: 'I can see a point to arguing with Tyson. I don't see a point to arguing with anyone else, or anyone else arguing amongst themselves,'. I think Tyson's thought of Kai as a God-sent  
"You've known Tala for thirteen years?"

"Yes,"

"Wow. No wonder he knows so much about you,"

Kai raises his eyebrows and there's a predatory gleam in his eye. Oops.

"What do you know he knows about me?"  
"Um…I…"  
Kai would make a great interrogator. Tyson's spilt the whereabouts of his precious secret sugar-stash just from one venomous glare and a shove against the wall. I admitted once that I hadn't sent Draciel to be updated by Kenny when I'd promised myself not to, and all he had to do to make me say it was fold his arms and raise an eyebrow at me. He has this aura about him that says: if you've got something I want you to say, you're damn-well going to say it. He can make truth pour like blood.

"Well?"  
"You know, just…"

I can't lie. Not when he's looking at me like that.

"Stuff about your-"

The doorbell rings downstairs. Kai pauses, then turns to look at the door. We listen in silence as Tala answers it.

There's a heated exchange, with the floorboards creaking as they move about. Kai's frozen, and the colour's drained from his face.

"Kai?"  
He doesn't move. The door slams shut, and everything's silence. Rei's voice floats up through the floor.

"Who was that?"  
Kai breaks out of his trance and turns to look at me. We sit and watch each other for a few minutes. Brrrr…the water's cold.

"Just talk to Tala. Make him listen. Otherwise he's never going to forgive you," Kai says, dryly, and he leaves quickly. I hear his footsteps run quickly downstairs, then I can't hear anything else, however much I strain over the edge of the tub and lean towards the floor. I'm listening so closely for Kai and Tala talking I don't hear the sounds of Rei coming upstairs. I only know he's on the same floor as me when he knocks on the door.

"Max?"  
I jump, teeter a bit too far forward, and nearly fall head-first out of the bath.

"Wait a minute,"  
I leap out the bath, pull on my towel, and open up the door.

"Hey,"  
"Hi. Sorry, didn't mean to disturb you,"  
"It's fine. Who was at the door?"  
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," Rei said, in a low voice.

"Ok," I whisper, and pull him in the room. I shut the door, secretly shoving 'get a lock for the bathroom door' onto my list of things to do. Coming to think about it though, that ain't going to work. Kai and Tala are the kind of people who get locks to tumble open under their touch…

I sit on the edge of the tub and Rei sits on the toilet seat.

"Who was he?"  
"Scary. I thought you might know him,"  
"Well, I know lots of scary people. Which ones this one?"

"He's tall. He's got _really_ wide shoulders, and his face looks like a bulldog. Um…blonde hair? Blue eyes?" I shook my head to all his descriptions, "Scary? Russian?"  
"Russian? Did he speak Russian?"  
"Yes. He seemed to know Tala. And Tala looked ready to strangle him,"

"So he knew him?"  
"Yes. I thought _you_ might know him,"  
"No. I've…I've no idea,"  
A scary, bulldog looking Russian with wide shoulders? No, I had no idea who it was. At first I thought it might be Spencer but then I remembered that Rei knew Spencer. Rei seemed troubled though, and I could feel the beginnings of something like that in my stomach. Was this who'd been at the door the other day? Oh please don't let us have a stalker. That's all we need.

"So he obviously knew Tala and Kai," I murmured, listening out for the pair downstairs, "And when he came to do the door Kai looked…I don't know. Scared,"  
"Who was it then?"  
"I don't know. Wish you could have understood what he said,"  
"Well, that's what I wanted to tell you about mostly. You know my Uncle, the one who lives in Paris?"

"Oh, yeah,"  
"He's been given a few students from one of the schools that he's training up to cook in his kitchen. Two of them are Russian. I spent a week or two a month ago working in his kitchen whilst they were there. I learnt a bit of Russian,"  
"Ooh! Um…wait, I'm going to get dressed first, _then_ you can tell me,"

SSSSSSSSSSS

Rei and I are sat on a bench in the middle of the park. For pure privacy reasons obviously. And the fact that we're positioned in a nice sunny spot that's close, but not too close, to the ice cream van has got nothing to do with anything. Obviously. I've got a strawberry flavoured lolly, and Rei has an ice cream cone.

"So, what do you think he said?"  
"Well I'm not fluent, so I only got a few words. The man said: Zdrávstvuyte, which means 'hello'. Tala said: osta…ostavte menya. Which I think means 'go away'. Then the man said something, and all I caught was 'sevódnya' which means today. He then said: 'where is' but Tala cut him off before he finished asking what he was looking for. The guy saw me stood behind him, and said: Ocheb priyatno, which means 'pleased to meet you'. No…no, wait, it does. And that's all I got,"  
"So he was looking for someone?"

Rei nodded, and licked a few delicate trails of ice cream that were slinking down the edge of the cone.

"So you've never seen him before?"  
"No. And I've no idea what he wants,"

Although considering the way Kai looked when he heard the voice at the door, it's probably got something to do with Kai.

SSSSSSSSSS

"How are things going? What's it like living with those two?"  
Rei and I are sat out on two of the kitchen chairs, completely taking over the small balcony that comes off the living room. It's not well used because you can't fit three chairs out there, and _standing_ out here too long makes me feel dizzy. Kai and Tala had gone out late-night food shopping: partly so that we can actually to feed Rei, and partly to give us some time ot catch-up. It sounded like Kai and Rei did all that when Kai organised Rei to come over. I also think that Tala still doesn't want to be in the same room as me.

We had a huge bottle of soda in between us, and a large bag of chips, and by now both are half-empty. We would have beer or something more interesting to drink, but we used my news of being employed by Mr Carluccio as an excuse to drink all the alcoholic stuff in the fridge.

"It's…it's really good,"  
"Are they good company?"  
"They can be, yeah. It's quiet but…I don't know, it's sort of relaxing too. They're not hyper or…they're more calm,"  
"You mean the opposite of Tyson and Daichi?"  
"Yes," I laughed, filling up my glass again.

"So…" Rei seemed a little awkward, as if the question he was about to ask was stupid, "They're…ok to live with. They're not-"  
"They watch out for me. Both of them They've got their own…problems, and we've all learn how to cope with a…_few_ of them,"

"Good. I'm glad they're looking out for you,"  
"Why, you think I need looking out for?"  
"Nothing like that. But you three are all on your own here,"  
"Yeah. I suppose,"

We talked out there for hours, the night getting cooler and darker, until we could only see by the faint light cast from the kitchen beyond the living room. I was starting to shiver under Kai's jacket, which I'd found on the back of the sofa.

"Should we go in? I'm freezing,"

We stayed up until about three in the morning talking in the living room. Tala and Kai came back about midnight and disappeared upstairs. Rei was sleeping on the sofa bed, so it took us about an hour to get that out as I'd never done it before and we were a bit…well, giddy. From all the soda and sweets we'd been devouring all evening. I lugged a spare duvet that I never knew existed out of the airing cupboard, and eventually went up to bed, warning Rei about the shower if he wanted one in the morning, and it's vile temperament. It was quiet upstairs, and both Tala and Kai's doors were shut. I wondered briefly about going to say sorry to Tala, seeing as he can't really escape at four in the morning without waking the whole household.

I sneak up to his door, and debate about knocking. Maybe not, I might stir Kai. But then again, Tala might not be asleep, and I don't want to interrupt anything. I give a tiny, tiny knock, that no-one would ever be able to hear, then slipped in.

Tala was all tangled up the duvet, fast asleep. His alarm clock cast a green glow onto the opposite facing wall and threw odd shadows over the tall bookcase in the corner. The black curtains were drawn and the light from behind it bled through the sides and smudged against the pale blue wall about the window. I tiptoe over, hoping if Tala is half-unconscious I can get my entire apology-speech out without being interrupted or slammed to the floor.

"Tala," I whispered, taking a step closer. He doesn't stir. So much primed wildcat hearing, "Tala,"  
I move a little closer, "Tala?"  
If I had suspected that there'd be a potential something - or someone - on the floor to trip over, then I wouldn't have even bothered sneaking into Tala's room. But my brain was clouded with exhaustion and all those E-numbers I'd ingested. I took a step closer and stood on something that moved when my foot connected and went, "Ow,"

I lost my footing and, combined with the shock, that sent me flying forward. I hti the edge of the bed, banging my hip on the wooden frame, and fell on top of Tala's legs. Not surprisingly it woke him up, and he sit up hissing, "What the hell?"  
I lay sprawled across his legs, numb with surprise. The bedside light came on and I scrambled up.  
"Max?"  
"What?"  
"What are you doing?"  
"Did you just stand on me?"  
"I'm sorry!"  
"What do you want Max?" Tala snaps, pulling his legs out from underneath me so that I bump my head against the wall.

"Ow,"

I look over the edge of the bed to see who I stood on and, surprise-surprise, it's Kai. He's sat up against the bedside table, wrapped up in his duvet, blinking at me with a small glare through the light that's doing none of our eyes any good.

"Kai? What are you doing in here?"

"I fell asleep here. What are you doing?"  
"I…I came to talk to Tala,"  
Tala had that royally pissed off face on him and his chin was tilted up a little. I knew I was going to get no forgiveness from Tala, so I just folded my arms and glared back at him.

"Well? What did you want to talk to me about?" he snaps, quickly.

I open my mouth to apologise but I feel an idiot. I've just stood on Kai, I'm shaking from all that cold outside seeping into my bones, and I'm trying to say 'I'm sorry' to an annoyed, half-asleep Tala. It isn't going to work. For some reason, despite my subconscious screaming: No! No! Bad idea, bad idea, I draw up my defence and take a stance.

"Nothing, if you're going to be like that. I won't bother,"

I stand up to stalk away. I catch Tala letting his haughty look go and looking vaguely annoyed. He tucked himself up to the chin in his duvet and watches me as I take a stride over Kai. I'm only a step away from Kai when I feel fingers wrapping around my ankle, gently halting me.  
"Kai?"  
"Come back," he says, simply. I look down at his hand around my ankle. He tugs gently backwards. To stop myself from being pulled onto my behind, I sit down on the floor at Kai's feet.  
"What?"

"Not that I particularly care, but you two really need to talk,"  
Tala snaps something in Russian and Kai rolls his eyes, "It's like looking after toddlers," he sighs.

He pulls himself up onto Tala's bed, pulling me with him. Kai is surprisingly strong. I find myself sat face-to-face with Tala, Kai sat at the end of the bed watching us carefully.

"Tala, I'm sorry," I say quickly, before he can shove me off the bed, "I'm…I'm really sorry about what I said. And I know I shouldn't have said it,"

Tala opens his mouth to retort. Oh God. Here we go.

SSSSSSSSSSS

"Hello?"  
"Hello Maxy! It's Mum,"

"Hi mum!"  
"Hey Max. How are you doing?"  
"I'm…I'm fine, why are you calling so early?"  
"Sorry, it's just with the time difference and everything, it's hard to get it right,"  
"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that,"  
I forgot that she was enjoying the sun in Mumbai.

"How are the offices going?"  
"Very good. By the way, Max, I've been looking at houses out here. There's a really nice neighbourhood they built for the team to work at the offices, and they've offered me this gorgeous big house, very close to work. It's all ready to be moved into. I've been thinking that since I'll be working out here for a year or so - sorting everything out and everything- and I thought I could get the house. Which would mean that you could come over to Mumbai sooner than we though! Wouldn't that be great, living in such an exotic place?"  
"What? Mum, I…I want to stay in America. I like it here. And I thought that I lived with Dad now,"  
Her voice went tart and clipped, "Yes, well, your Dad's off jet-setting isn't he,"  
"He's on a cruise,"  
"Yes, but a long one. He won't be back for a while. And I don't like leaving you all on your own in America. It's unnerving Maxy,"  
"I'm safe Mum, honestly,"  
"Please Max, I'd really like to have some time with you. I know that technically your Dad's is responsible nowadays, but my workload has just been lifted off my shoulders! All I have to do is supervise, and it's going to give me so much more time to be with you. I've contacted my lawyer and you can stay with me until your Dad gets back, and if he wants you to go back with him he has to go through all the right legal channels-"  
"So what you're saying is if you take me now, it's going to take longer for dad to get me back when he returns,"

"Max, I'm not trying to _plot_ this against your Dad or anything-"  
"Mum I don't want to live in Mumbai!"  
"Max this is a fantastic opportunity! There's also someone…someone special I want you to meet over here to. His name's Paul and I think-"

I cut the lien as quickly as possible and threw the phone across the other side of the bed. Tala, Kai, and Rei, all sat on my bed, stare at the thrown phone.

"_She's_ going out with someone now," I mumble, pointing at the phone, "And she wants me to move to Mumbai with her. I don't want to go. I like it here,"

They all watch me for a moment, then Tala pops open the lid of the small white box, the smell of which he had woken me up with not half an hour ago.

"Do you want a doughnut?"

I nod, trying to keep my eyes from filling up, and ram it into my mouth to choke my tears away. Last night, Tala and I talked. Well, we talked and fought and shouted and slammed doors, but eventually we talked calmly, and sorted everything out. I admitted that I was a thoughtless idiot for saying what I had said, and Tala told me a little bit more about missing his team so that I didn't misunderstand how he felt about it. Kai sat and watched the entire time, adjudicating if he had to, and in the end, seemed very pleased. Rei came up at about six o' clock, muttering: What are you two doing? I came here to celebrate Max's birthday and you end up starting World War Three.

By that time we'd forgiven each other and just told him to go back to sleep. He did, shaking his head.

Kai, Tala, Max and I fell asleep on Tala's bed, curled up at different places on the duvet, and slept right up until midday. I staggered into my own bed to warm up under my duvet, and ended up falling back to sleep. I was woken by someone pulling the hair from my eyes and the full midday sunshine blinding me. When I became fully conscious, I learnt that Tala was giving me a tutorial into waking me up when I was tired and grouchy.

"You're mean," I'd said, until I recognise the little white box that Tala had been drifting around my head. It smelt very, very familiar. The phone had rung just as I was about to dive to grab the doughnuts. I heard Rei saying: I see you don't approve of this slow-awakening thing then Kai, and a replying grunt from Kai, before my Mum shattered the thought that at least regarding my mother; everything was pretty plain sailing. Now I feel sick.

"Max, it's Ok, she can't make you do what you want. And it's not like neither her or your Dad are going to marry their new partners,"  
I just shake my head and chew silently on my doughnut. Rei sighs and Tala hides the phone.  
"Just don't think about it Max. You can deal with it. Don't worry,"

I try to give Tala a smile to thank him but I didn't think I could, what with my mouth completely filled with strawberry-centred doughnut. Ugh, it's all dribbling down my chin.

"You're disgusting Max,"  
"Maxy you're getting it on your bed!"  
The doorbell rings as try to wipe up all the strawberry sauce on my chin, attempting (badly) to stop myself from laughing. I don't want to spray my friends with food like Tyson seems to think is Ok to do.

"I'll get it,"

Kai unfurls his legs and moves towards the stair. I'm left with Tala and Rei eating doughnuts.  
"What are you doing today then? We'll all be out shopping for you, so you're going to have to keep yourself entertained,"  
"I can keep myself entertained for a few hours you know,"

The door swings open downstairs.

"Zdrávstvuyte, Kai,"

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

I know this is supposed to be a bit of a day-to-day fic, but it needs something to happen. It isn't going to be big, it isn't going be exaggerated, it's just going to be another obstacle for the three of them.  
Review please!


	7. Chapter 7

Thanks for the reviews guys! I'm not sure about this chapter…I lost inspiration today but I want to put it up today because I'm busy for practically a week now…

Once again the linebreak dunnae work so you're stuck with letters.

Enjoy

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

"Zdrávstvuyte, Kai,"

Rei and Tala both froze with doughnuts to their lips. I stopped chewing mine, feeling the strain it had put on my jaw for the first time. Tala jumped up from the bed and rushed downstairs. Even though, technically, it was no business of mine and Rei's, we shot down after him. Coming to a grinding halt at the top of the stairs, we hung onto the banister together and watched. The guy at the door was exactly how Rei described. Tall, with immensely broad shoulders, aged at about thirty, with a peaked nose and skin that was eerily baby-like. He had blonde hair that was thick and shaggy on his head, and when he spoke, his voice barrelled from his chest so low you could barely hear it. He said something that I obviously didn't understand, and one hand snatched out and clamped around Kai's wrist. Everybody jumped, and something that was scarily to a feral growl rose from Tala's throat, and his hand tightened on the door frame. He looked ready to slam the door against the man's head and watch the wood smash in his skull. Kai snapped his wrist away and said something that, once again, I didn't understand. He moved to shut the door but the guy placed his foot at it's base, stopping it from moving. Can four teenage boys take a man like that? Probably. If we all fought dirty like Tala. Words were exchanged, and I could see Kai's back tense more and more.

_All_ of the Bladebreakers know what the tell-tale signs of anger are in Kai's body. His back tenses, his eyes narrow, his hands clenched dangerously, a muscle in his jaw works steadily. And right now he seemed pretty angry. There were more exchanged words, and Tala joined in. Rei gave me a sideways look and I tried to look as calm as possible. As if scary, brutal-looking Russians readily appear at our doorsteps. The man's starting to ease his way into the house, talking in a long stream of Russian in an eerie, silky voice. He puts a hand on the door and curls his fingers around the edge, just above Tala's own hand. Tala moves his in the blink of an eye and slams the heel of his hand against the middle-joint of the guy's hand. Ouch. The man recoiled his hand, a flinch of pain on his face. But it only took a second for Kai to react. He pushed the guy back and he tumbled into the hall. Both Tala and Kai slammed the door shut, and Kai yanked the chain into place.

"Kai-" Rei started, but Kai whipped around to face us and Rei lost his voice. I didn't really blame him. The look on Kai's face was one we'd seen a few times before in our four year career together. Kai disappeared down the hallway in a blur of blue and grey, snatching up the phone on the way, and the kitchen door slammed shut behind him.

"Tala…"  
"I…wouldn't," Tala said, and brushed past us on the stairs, "And come on Rei, we're going out soon,"

"But, what…"

The three went out shopping, although not after we'd got hold of Kai. He'd bluntly replied - to our question on who the man was - with: lawyer.

I was confused. That guy was a lawyer? Considering the suit, he looked a typical lawyer, but taking in the sheer creepiness of his character, I was swaying towards the 'assassin' occupation. And now I'm all alone in the house…Ok, I'm going to lock and bar the door.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSs

It's so quiet now…too quiet. I'm used to a shower going or the coffee machine whirring or the three of us bantering. The place is never a raucous but it's also never silent. I go into Kai's room to return his comforter (now that mine has had the chocolate washed out of it), and his room is a mess! His drawers are turned out, his bed is stripped, the mattress is crooked on the bed, and the case that used to hold Dranzer before it broke, was open in the middle of the floor. There are pieces of paper everywhere. I bend down and pick a few up. They looked official, with a law firm's logo on the top. I don't understand half of what I'm reading, but there's a cross at the bottom of every piece of paper with a post-it-note at the top. I'm guessing that that means Kai has to sign them. I'm way too tired to make out what they mean. Oh, no, wait, there's one here that says…'Emancipation papers'. Emancipation? Kai wants to be emancipated? From his Grandfather? Wow…although to be honest I don't blame him.

But then what are all these papers for? There's already a signature on it: Andrei Marksim Nikolai Hiwatari.

Hmmm…

I would be trying to find out whether Andrei Hiwatari is Kai's father, but I'm too self-absorbed. My Mum rang me again this morning after I hung up on her, and I ignored it. Now I feel guilty, but also just as angry as before. How can she just expect to uproot me from not only my life in America, but from the life I've been building with my Dad. It's not fair. She can't just expect me to up and leave. I like it in America. I've spent most of my life in America or Japan, and I am _not_ going to Mumbai. I won't have any friends. And what would Kai and Tala do? The only way we're managing to pay the water, electricity and phone bill, is by the money my Dad sends for me. They'd have to take more from Mr Dickenson. But what if Mr D can't afford it? Man this is complicated. I'm also enjoying my time here. It's hard, and I have to work for the bills and just to make sure Tala doesn't pass out from hunger.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSs

"Juice!"

Tala let out a sigh as I dove into the plastic bag and pulled out a bottle of my favourite apple juice.

"Yes Max, juice,"  
"Does anyone else want some?" I asked as the three of them moved into the living room.

"No thanks. And Max, you're not allowed in the living room until we say, because we're wrapping presents,"  
"Can't I peek?"  
"No,"  
"_Please_!"  
"No Max. Go and drink juice,"  
Sometimes they act like I'm a five year old. Particularly Tala. And he was the one who denied he was the mother hen of this arrangement. Tala and Rei are already filling the living room with the sound of rustling paper, but Kai is in the kitchen with me. Getting a coffee; surprise-surprise. I've got a plate full of scraps from my lunch and a big glass of juice, and Kai's being all sophisticated with a simple black coffee. Maybe I am like a five year old…oh well.

"Has your Mum rang again?" Kai asks, pouring out his coffee.

"No," I lie. I only manage it because he's not looking at me. And he's probably not _really_ paying attention anyway. Who would, if they had a scary Russian at the door after them?

"Well there's two messages on the machine from her saying she called and no-body picked up. So I think she did,"

"Oh. Well…I didn't know,"  
"Hn,"  
"Kai?"  
"Yes?"  
I thought this might be the right time to corner Kai about what happened this morning. We were alone in the kitchen and he'd just caught me out, so I thought I'd take advantage.

"Who was at the door this morning Kai? Who is she?"  
Kai snatched the coffee cup up.

"No-one,"  
"Don't lie to me Kai! Who was he?"

The pair in the living room were still rustling around, so Kai turned back round to me and said:

"Lawyer,"  
"You said that. But what does he want from you? What's wrong?"  
"He…" Kai put down his coffee mug and folded his arms, "He's my father's lawyer. My Dad wants me to go back to live with him,"  
"What? Really?"  
"Yes,"

"And he's got a scary lawyer to come over and…"  
"Take me back,"  
"Can he do that?"  
"No," Kai said, darkly, and he moved into the living room. I caught a glimpse of different coloured wrapping paper and Tala and Rei with their hands tangled up in a lot of cellotape, before the door shut completely behind Kai. /Sigh/

Although I suppose I got _some_ information out of him.

I try to peek through the keyhole.

"Step away from the door Max!"

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSs

"Hm. I don't know. Getting to sleep in the Abbey was hard when you first got there. When my training was over on my first day I was thrown onto a double-bed with three other boys and expected to sleep peacefully. It was a nightmare. I didn't sleep at all,"  
"Three other boys?"

Tala smirked, "Take a guess,"  
"Kai?"  
"Oh yes,"

"Bryan?"  
"Yes,"

"Um…Spencer?"  
"Yeah. That was pretty much how we got to know each other,"  
"What, in bed?"  
"Pretty much. There were other things too though,"

"Do I want to know?"  
"No,"

We're all crowded into the spare bedroom in various positions about the room, staring at the mess that was the reason Rei slept on the sofa-bed and not in this room. We got onto the subject of how to get to sleep after I bounced on the spare bed and commented that it was pretty squishy, so I'd probably sleep well on it. For Kai and Tala, I don't think they care if the bed is squishy or lumpy or hard, they just go to sleep on it. Well at least that's the impression I get. And Kai _did _go to sleep on Tala's floor happily.

"So what _is_ all this?" Rei asked, staring at the boxes and bags.

"This is our equivalent to putting everything in storage. Why are you making me help you do this? It's the day before my birthday!"  
"Because we need this stuff sorted out and it's not fair for Rei to be on the sofa bed, and also a _lot_ of this stuff is yours,"  
Oh. Yes. It is. It's embarrassing, because when we moved in Tala and Kai had very little compared to me. Tala didn't own much anyway, and most of what Kai owned is locked up in his Grandfather's mansions, whose key is slowly being ingested by Voltaire's lawyers in an effort to please their employer. It's strange, because when I first saw Kai after he'd been kicked out of the mansion, before he went to his Dad's for a while (I have yet to find out about why that didn't work), he had a lot more than he does now. Maybe his Dad stole some of his things…

"Right, we'll split it into two. Rei and Max do that side, and Kai and I will do this side,"

I'm amazed Tala actually organised this. Kai hates tidying up. When Ken and Tyson's Grandpa get annoyed about us messing up the living room, Kai quietly slinks away and isn't seen until the tidying is completely over. With his room, he just makes sure he doesn't make a mess in the first place.

Rei lugs a great big box from the bottom shelf of the bookcase, flipping open the top. He burst out with such loud laughter he nearly toppled backwards.

"What?"  
"What is _this_!" he cried, tugging out a Draciel plushie.

"Oh, yeah, they're the box the toy manufacturer sent for me to approve after we won the first world championships,"  
"They sent you a _box_ to approve?"  
"We all got boxes. Kai got one, I got one, Tyson got one, and you got one,"  
Rei frowned, "I don't remember getting a box of fluffy Driger's,"

"No, you didn't get yours. You went back home a week earlier than the rest of us, so we threw yours away. But…" I rummaged around in the box, knowing that there were the three other Bitbeasts in there, "I kept one of _everyone's_. Look,"

I pulled out the four plushies and lined them up on the spare bed. A line of fluffy Bitbeasts. Dranzer, Driger, Draciel and Dragoon. All in plushie version. It was quite sweet actually.

"Cute, hey?"  
Tala and Kai rolled their eyes and went back to their tidying.

"Photos," Tala, throwing a packet of photographs at me.

"Ooh, look. It's the ones from when we were in Africa,"

I passed the photos around, which amused Tala greatly.

"Why do you take these things?" he said, shaking his head, "You all look like idiots,"  
"It's amusing to look back on the times we had. Particularly," I whipped out a specific photo that I remember crying with laughter at when I first got it back from the developers, "When Tyson got attacked by a monkey at the zoo,"

Now Tala _did_ find that funny.

"Do you have any photos of us Kai?"  
"There's a few in my bag,"  
"What about you Tala?"  
Tala shook his head, "Not many. Just a few of Kai's last birthday party,"  
"Can I have a look?"  
"Sure,"

I go and get all of the photos from Kai and Tala's room, and arrange them all on the floor.

"Oh God, please don't make a Friends Forever photo album or something," Tala groaned, arms buried in a box.

"Don't worry, I won't," I sigh, rolling my eyes.

Good idea…that should annoy Tala suitably. Revenge for leaving the cold tap running whilst I was in the bath…

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSss

I've had a good day. I've ignored all fifteen calls of my Mum's, and despite all of the glares and looks I'm getting from Kai, Tala and Rei, I'm sticking to the pretence that I can't hear the phone ringing. All my presents are hidden about the house, and I'm actually really looking forward to getting them tomorrow. We moved into the living room after tidying out the spare room, and I help Rei take all of his stuff there. Right now, we've got the film on that Rei rented out, and Kai, Tala and I are buried in a mound of Draciel plushies watching them. We've got a big bowl of popcorn to share between us, including a whole thing of sweets and cheesy chips (well, Tala's got a little plate of his own food. He doesn't like popcorn and he won't eat anything with cheese on it, so he's got some '_bliny_', which Kai told me is Russian for little pancakes. They're Tala's favourite food, apparently)

Anyway, I've got one Draciel plushie on my head and Rei, sat on the armchair, is balancing his Driger one on his head. I'm trying to get Dranzer to stay on Kai's head, but the minute Kai's still enough and I get it on, he tilts his head to the side and it slides off.

"Kai!"  
"Max, I don't want that thing on my head,"  
"It's Dranzer!"

"Hn,"

"Don't grunt at me Kai,"

Tala's looking vaguely amused but I think he wants to watch the film. He's buried up to his nose in Draciel's just like Kai and I are. I wish I had a camera. I prop Dranzer on Kai's head again and the second before Kai starts to tilt his head, there's a blinding flash of white, followed by an equally stunning one of red, before there's the distinct 'click' of a picture being taken. I spoke too soon then.  
"Wow! Let me get a look at that,"  
"Rei!" Kai snaps, looking _very_ annoyed. Tala's still drowned with Draciel's so Rei can't hear what he says, but in my little cave I've made in the avalanche of Draciel plushies, I can hear some colourful language through the fur.

"You can look at it later," Rei says, tucking the camera away, "If I give it to you now, Kai will get it and delete the picture,"

I was so buried in mini Draciel's that I didn't hear the doorbell until it rang a second time. Rei jumped up to get it, leaving us still avalanched.

Oh dear. Rei's gone a bit pale.

"It's that guy from this morning Kai. He's looking for,"  
Kai stood up out of the pile, sending plushies bouncing everywhere, and leaves the living room, Rei moving around behind. Tala and I freeze in the pile, and I expect any minute for the Russian to come barrelling into the living room. But there's nothing. Kai returns, and the doorbell rings frantically in the background.

"What did you do?"  
"I locked him out. He's not coming in," Kai said, simply, sitting back down on the cleared space on the sofa.

"Oh,"

Tala's got his full head out of the pile now. He says something to Kai that I don't understand. Damn them and their Russian language. Kai doesn't reply. He's watching the television screen as if he's watching the film, but I know he's not. He's tense in his seat and his fists are clenched. Well…that ruined a perfectly good moment. If that guy spoils my birthday tomorrow I'll let him in the flat and set Draciel on him. Not the plushie Draciel though, the real one.

"Kai," Tala eventually said, in English, "He's not allowed to do that, that's asking someone to _stalk_ you,"

"He'll give up eventually,"  
"Why does he want to talk to you?"  
"He wants to get me into talks about living with my Dad. And I'm not going to,"

"Why does your Dad want you back? What does he want you to do?"  
Kai frowned, "He doesn't want me to _do_ anything, except come and live with him,"

"Oh. It was just…"

"You thought he wanted me for an evil plot for world domination or something?"

I blushed bright red, and gabbled, "No, no, not at all, I just-"  
"Thought that everyone in the Hiwatari line wanted to take over the world?" he smirks.

"No, it's just that-"  
"My Dad, however closely related to Voltaire he is, does not want me for any other reason than to play Happy Families. His new wife is killing him over it,"  
"But I thought you already stayed with your Dad. After they changed Voltaire's will, I thought you stayed with your Dad for a while,"  
"I did,"  
"And?"  
…

Kai is almost as good as Tala when it comes to ignoring someone. Except he doesn't have the 'innocent' look, and enjoys making it obvious that he's not listening to you because he really doesn't think whatever you're saying is important enough to be answered.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSss

I'm so excited I can't sleep. I know that's incredibly sad and very childish, but I'm _really_ excited about my birthday. It'll be nice to spend it with my friends. Even though that tomorrow is rent-pay day and Mr Dickenson's check has yet to appear in the mail. If I have to go and flaunt my smile to the landlord again I will scream. And it's not like I can let Tala or Kai go, because we'd be kicked out within minutes. Ok, _maybe_ I could send Kai. But we're still trying to teach Tala the ways of the world. He calls us 'suck ups' when we say hello to the landlord everytime we see him. If we weren't barely hanging onto this world by the lifeline that is our apartment, then I would both outwardly and inwardly disagree with him. But the apartment is all we really have to keep us going right now, and although we try and tell Tala saying hello is called 'politeness', it really is sucking up.

I wonder what I'm getting for my birthday…I wonder if my Dad will ring me to say happy birthday. I bet my Mum will, but then I'd have to pick up and talk to her, and after ignoring her for twelve hours she isn't going to be best pleased. Maybe I should get Kai or Tala to pick up when she calls. Or even Rei. My Mum likes Rei, she sees him as the responsible adult of the Bladebreakers. Even though Kai's the oldest. I don't think she entirely trusts Kai. Which may account for the face she pulled when she learnt I was going to be living with him and Tala. Not that my Mum's judgemental or anything. It's just that she's not too keen on me spending time alone in the big bad world with Tala Ivanov - who was impulsive and rational when he got emotional - and Kai Hiwatari, who (my Mum always reckoned) never gave a decent enough explanation as to why he abandoned the Bladebreakers over and over again. It's a grim assessment, but the bit about Tala's true.

Tala does get emotional a lot of the time. You'd think he'd be a cold shell of a teenage boy, a bit like a more passive and silent Kai. But after they made him 'normal' again, he's been seen to be doing pretty emotive things. Like challenging BEGA, for example. And sticking up for me at the corner shop by calling the guy behind it an insincere, antagonising, patronising fool (well he didn't actually say the word 'fool', but I'm not repeating the word he really said. It did begin with 'f' though). But he also gets emotional in the non-violent sense. He gets glittery eyes when he saw that little kitten stagger down the alleyway, when we were on balcony the other day. He kept saying we should go down and get it but it had already hopped into someone's house. It was quite sweet really. He couldn't understand why we couldn't go and get it:  
'Tala we can't, it's obviously someone elses,'  
'But they're not looking after him. We could,'  
'Tala, you can't just take someone else's pet,'  
'But they don't deserve it,'

'Tala, you can't just-'

'Why?'

Aww...oh god, I called Tala sweet. If he ever heard me thinking that I'd be dead and buried.

Wait a minute…why is the shower going?

I creep out into the hall and yell like a girl when I bump into Tala.

"Tala! What are you doing!"

"Sorry,"

This never happened at the Ken dojo. I was able to walk free in the corridors if I was awoken, without bumping into a half-naked Tala dripping water everywhere.

"Were you having a shower in the middle of the night?"

Tala nodded, scrunching another towel over his wet hair.

"Why?"  
"I don't know. Bored,"  
"You got bored? So you decided to have a shower?"  
"Yes, why not? _You're_ awake aren't you?"

"Yes but I'm not taking a shower!"

Maybe Kai was right about Tala and his incredibly small attention span. I mean, everytime we watch a film he _does_ keep moving around the living room and go to get a drink about eight times. And yell: boo! Whenever there's a silent moment so he can laugh at me jumping out of my skin whilst Kai remains calm and cool in the corner.

"Go back to bed Max," he sighs, heading off back to his room.

I go downstairs to get myself a drink and mull over why Tala is having a shower in the middle of the night. I turn to go back upstairs and spot something sticking out from under the door. A midnight note? Hm…intriguing. Oh God I think I'm hyper from all that Sherbet I had. I sneak forward and grab the letter. Maybe it's the landlord warning us about the rent check tomorrow.

_Kai_. _Your Father warned you about this before. If you do not come and have a preliminary meeting with him, your lawyer and myself, you can be forced to by a court of law._

_Failing that, I will come and get you myself. _

_Yours Sincerely,  
Andrei Hiwatari's Attorney: Albert Boris Koulikovsky_

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Review please!


	8. Chapter 8

**AS:** Hey! I wrote it this in about an hour, because I was in such a good mood. Why my I ask? _BECAUSE I'VE FINISHED MY GCSEs! _Woo! I got the results today (very stressful, but I kind of wish I stuck around to soak up the atmosphere, it was funky!) and I'm a pretty happy bunny. Hope everyone else who did GCSEs did Ok too (and of courses A Levels also), but don't worry; I won't dawdle on the subject because it's too depressing for words.

But I am in a good mood, so it may seem a lil fluffy this chapter, but I tried not to make it so.

Anyway, thanks _so_ much for the reviews. You do not know how much they make my day, so please continue them!

And yes, Mumbai is a _very _accidental and _very_ bad pun on 'Mum-bye'. I actually noticed that a few days ago actually. Very odd.

By the way, I realise I put in a few things on past chapters that meant had to have footnotes on them. Pay attention to them or not, I don't really mind:

**Chapter 3: **1) Mr Carluccio is the only name I could think of at the time. I got 'Carluccio' from that restaurant in London called Carluccio's, but I'm sure that I can use the name without having trademark issues.

**Chapter 5: **1) Boo and Heidi are the name of my two gorgeous kittens that I had for a total of just six months before they both got hit my cars. So that was in honour of my two little kittens.

I made a mistake in the last chapter to: 'This would never happen at the _Ken_ dojo,'

I mean to say: 'Granger'.

Is that all? Yes?

Good.

Enjoy!

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I wake up _very _disorientated. I obviously got my legs tangled at the bottom of my duvet in the middle of the night, and I woke up so hot my head brain felt fuzzy and melted. When I eventually kicked off my duvet I dozed for a bit, then came around with the thought:

It's my birthday! Woo-hoo! I'm one year older and feeling _great_! I go into a small doze again, but I'm woken by someone poking the underside of my foot, which makes me convulse. I'm very ticklish.

Ooh, what's that smell? Pancakes?...Pancakes!

I eventually open my eyes and am greeted by Tala, Kai and Rei all sat cross-legged on my bed. There's a tray just by my side, holding a huge pile of pancakes slathered in syrup. There's a glass of water, a cup of tea, and some toast.

"Thanks guys! How come there's a square in the toast?" I ask, lifting up a hot piece of toast with a perfect square cut out in the middle of it.

"Tala had a knife. And he got bored,"

"So I cut some holes out of them," Tala explained, as if it's a perfect reasonable explanation. I'd hate to see what Tala does when he's _really_ bored.

"Right,"  
"Anyway, eat your breakfast," Tala says in an authoritive tone. I can see a small mound of presents behind his back. Yay!

I eat my breakfast, feeling the note I retrieved from the door last night burn and scream at me from the drawer where I hid it away. Oh well, I'll think about that later.

"So, how does it feel to be a whole one year older?" Rei asks, eyeing my breakfast hungrily.

"Very good. When do I get my presents?"  
"Not yet! Eat. Chew-chew-chew. Swallow-swallow-swallow," Tala chanted. He's got a voice like a paramilitary commando. I choke a little on my toast and he begins to laugh.

"Where did he learn to laugh like that?" I ask Kai, in a stage whisper, once I've finished choking and Tala is distracted by Rei and his camera.

"Where do you think?"  
"Beelzebub?"  
"No,"

I think for a moment.

"Bryan,"

"Exactly,"  
Ah. Well that it explains it then. I go back to chomping happily.

"Eat quicker,"

"I can't eat any quicker,"  
"Yes you can,"

There really is no point arguing with Tala. Because, even if he's wrong, he'll win the argument. Even if I can't physically eat any faster, he'd win the argument over whether I could or not hands down. He'd win _any_ kind of argument. I heard him a few days ago arguing with Kai over who was going to be in the shower next, and even Kai buckled after half an hour.

I scoff my breakfast down as quickly as possible, trying to listen to the conversation and not my conscience going: give Kai the note, give Kai the note, give Kai the note.

"By the way," Tala says, "The coffee machine's broken and our rent check hasn't come in the mail,"  
I choke on a piece of toast.

"No! _Again_?"  
"Yeah. What are we going to do?"  
"I don't know. But it's not going to involve me," I say, ramming some pancake into my mouth and beaming at them, trying to show off my detachment from the problem. I am not going to be roped in to go and sweet-talk the landlord into letting us have a day extra on our rent. It is going to be Kai or…no, we're not sending Tala. It's going to be Kai.

"Why not?"  
"Because a) it's my birthday, and b) I _always_ go and talk to him about our rent checks. It isn't fair,"  
They let me continue eating and for a while the problem is forgotten. All those neatly wrapped presents are beckoning to me behind Tala's back. If they're neatly wrapped I'm assuming Rei wrapped them.

"Kai and I did," Rei said, reading my thoughts, "Tala…well he cut the cellotape,"  
"Well I don't wrapping presents, do I?" Tala sneered, "It's a pathetic thing to be able to do. How is wrapping presents supposed to help you in your later life,"

Before Tala began to rant, Kai spread out a few envelopes in front of me.

"These came in the post,"

A card and letter from Tyson, a card from my Mum and Dad, one from my friend in my old neighbourhood.

"How come Tyson couldn't come?" I asked as I read his card.

"He had a wedding to suddenly attend. His cousin's or something. His Dad said that he had to go,"

I read all of my letters and cards, and made everyone ignore the phone when it went off.

"Why?"  
"It'll be my Mum!"  
"So? She'll want to wish you happy birthday!"  
"No, she'll want to nag at me about-"

"Eat faster," Tala says, impatiently, prodding my knee.

"I am!"  
"No you're not," Tala's getting very annoyed and he prods my knee again.

"Don't get violent," Kai sighs. He'd make a good father one day, I think. That's a sweet, albeit slightly disturbing, thought. He's getting plenty of practise in this apartment, anyway.. What with me; the potential five year old, and Tala; whose pretty socially inept and can't understand why we can't help that kitten. He also argues over how the toaster works, and 'why good people die in things like car accidents and bad people get to waste away high on cocaine and booze'. And he gets violent easily. I sometimes wonder how that boy grew up before the Abbey.

"Stop prodding me! I can't eat any quicker, I feel sick enough as it is!"  
"Hurry up eating Max,"  
"I can't! Stop it, you're hitting me now, that's not prodding anymore,"  
"Tala stop it,"  
….See, told you Kai would make a great dad. He stopped Tala with three words.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Soon I'm finishing off my breakfast, and the tray is whipped away, and replaced by my presents.

"Yay! Um…I'll start with this one,"  
I pick up one wrapped in black paper.

"Oh, by the way. We couldn't afford to buy the tags whilst we were there. So all the ones in black paper are from Kai, all the ones in purple are from Tala, and the one's in white are from me. We all ran out of the appropriate amount of allowance money to spend by the time we got to the tags. My family didn't send me with much, and Kai was telling me about the situation you three are in. So no tags,"  
"Don't worry, I won't grieve for too long," I smiled.;

See what would happen if I left Kai and Tala? They can't afford gift tags! Come to think of it, with the amount of money _not_ going into bulls etc, I only own about 85p. My Dad had better send some allowance soon, or I'll track him down and get it myself.

"So this is from you, Kai?"  
"Yes,"  
I notice out of the corner of my eye that Tala was very still. I was about to open up the preset when I realised what that could very well mean.

"Tala?"  
Tala didn't respond. His gaze was fixed somewhere at the floor, and didn't move.

"Tala,"  
I wondered if prodding him on the knee is a good idea. Kai's watching Tala from the corner of his eye from where he's leant against the end of my bed. Rei's just starting, confused, at Tala.

"Tala,"

He has a blank but slightly pained expression on his face, as if something's hurting him but he doesn't know what it is. I did what I usually did in this situation and clicked my fingers in front of his face for a moment. No. No response. To be honest he didn't look all that good before. Tala's a pale person enough of the time as it is, but you can recognise when he's drained of colour. I think being so pale must be from living in the Abbey, slap bang in one of the coldest parts of Russia. Kai's not exactly tanned, ether. Rei on the other hand is pretty brown from living and training in the sun in the mountains. I'm…well I'm sort of in between. I'm not very pale and I'm not very tanned…I'm a New Yorker whose spend a few years in hot countries like Japan. And I have a Japanese father. So…I'm in between pale and tanned somewhere.

As I was deliberating over my skin tone, Tala seemed to come around, but then almost instantly his eyes closed. Kai took hold of his sleeve and pulled him down flat on the bed, were he lay in a light foetal position, fast asleep.

"Does this happen often?" Rei enquired as Kai shuffled over so that Tala could get his head down properly.

"Not often. But it's not unusual. He'll probably catch a cold soon,"  
"How do you know?"  
"It all comes from the coma. Tala still sometimes slips into unconsciousness, which makes his brain think he's offline, which makes him go to sleep. And after that it's easy for him to get ill, because without his cybernetics, and thanks to the coma; his immune system is shop to hello,"

Kai gets Tala comfy and Tala sleeps like the dead.

"Come on Dr Tate," Kai smirks, "Open a present,"

Kai sounds/looks sophisticated even when he makes a joke. I wonder when my sophistication gene will kick in? Maybe now that I'm a year older it will. Or maybe Kai's meant to be the cool one, and I'm destined to always be cute and hyper with fuzzy hair. And I bet I'll have these freckles on my face for the rest of my life too. I could get something to cover them up with but I've got enough with the cute-bunny jives, without investing in makeup and being seen in it. I also have a horrible memory attacked to any - and I mean any - form of make up. One day when I was about 20 months old, my cousin from my Dad's side of the family thought it would be funny to put make up on me. She was from my Dad's side of the family and a fun playmate until I was about 2. Maybe my Mum's catching onto something when I remind her of the story involving my cousin on my Dad's side and she says: Go figure. They _are_ all a bit strange.

Anyway, she was only nine at the time, and me being so young; photos were taken. And now everytime I go to visit my aunt and cousins and the rest of the extended family on my Dad's side, they no longer whip out of the fans they usually carry around with them. Instead, it's a copy of the photo of me naked and wearing a nine year old's attempt at subtle makeup. It's so embarrassing, that naturally all of my family find it incredibly sweet.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

I've opened _all_ of my presents. Tala slept the whole way through, tucked up in my bed. I actually said: awww out-loud, and Rei looked at me like I'd just admitted I enjoyed sacrificing kittens to the devil at the stroke of midnight.

"What?"  
"Besides Tyson, I thought you'd be the last person to say 'awww' about Tala,"  
Kai just had a small smile on his face.  
"It slipped out," I grumbled.

I'm very happy with my presents. I got _lots _of stuff, considering our money shortage. I hope _I_ have enough when I come around to buying presents for Kai and Tala's birthdays. At least they're both in December.

Tala's just woken up, and he's making lunch. There's no guarantee he's actually going to eat it though. Rei and I are snickering over the picture he took last night.

"What's so funny?" Kai asks, looking over the top of the book.

"That picture Rei took last night. We're thinking of printing it out and blowing up into suitable-poster size,"  
Kai just rolled his eyes and went back to his book. A package came by delivery from my Dad, but I had yet to open it. We were all a little sidetracked, because the deliver guy said he found a letter stuck in our doorjamb when he arrived. He handed it over, and I had a good suspicion it was from Albert The Lawyer. Kai has yet to read it, but it took a lot of wind out of our sails.

"Let me have a look,"

We handed the camera over to Tala, who smirked at the picture. Then he saw himself, "Why are only my eyes visible,"  
"It was the plushie avalanche,"  
"Oh,"  
He handed the camera back. He still doesn't look very well. His eyes are slightly bloodshot, and dark underneath. You can tell when Tala's tired because his hair's usually a bit mussed up, like it is now. He must have been awake most of last night, seeing as he had time to get bored and go and have a shower and wash his hair.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

"What are you making Tala?"  
"None of your business," he says, and leaves. I wonder if he _tries_ to be that rude. I hope he eats at least some of whatever he's making. It's depressing watching him look at the food as if it's about to try and eat _him_.

Half an hour goes by, and Rei and I are taking stupid pictures with Rei's camera, when Tala walks in with a kitten in his arms. Kai puts his book down rather forcibly.

"Tala,"  
There's more Dad material. It just pours of him.

"What?"  
"What did we tell you about the kitten?"  
"I didn't go and get it, if that's what you were thinking. It was on the balcony. It must have got up the fire escape and jumped to the tree and onto the balcony,"  
The kitten was, I have to admit, very sweet. It was completely grey, with a bluey hue like smoke. It had a little smudge of a black nose and very wide dark eyes. It's fur was matted in certain places, and it looked like it had caught it's back paw on something, because there was dried blood all over it. Those aren't the only injuries though. It's stomach is almost concave, his legs are so bony they looked bowed, and his little meowing it all caught up at the back of his throat like he's learnt not to meow anymore. It's a really heart-breaking thing to see, but even if we cleaned it up and fed it something, it probably wouldn't do much good. It looked like a runt of a big litter that got sold to the wrong person. Living in cities like Brooklyn and New York, you hear of lots of things happening like that. I suppose that's true anywhere, but it seems scarier in big metropolitans, because a small kitten or puppy could get lost anywhere and never found again.

"We have to take it back," Rei says, tucking away his camera.

"What? No. His owners might eat him,"  
"Tala, he's not ours,"  
"I'm not saying we keep him, I'm just saying we don't give it back to them. They don't deserve a cat,"  
Kai looks pained, like he has a bad headache. He's shoved the letter away somewhere where he can't see it, but I can tell it's plaguing on his mind. Which just makes me feel guiltier about keeping the note from him. Kai deserves to know that a scary lawyer is working for his very determined father, who'll even use the full extent law to get his son to come back with him. I keep wondering why Kai won't go back with his Dad. I mean, there must be a reason why he left pretty quickly the first time he tried it. Maybe his Dad's a bad person. Or maybe Kai's not used to living with his parents, or any kind of parental figure. When Ken ever did play the parent-role, Kai usually ignored him.

"Come on, we'll take it back," Rei says, giving Kai and I a look which said: help me. We all stood up at once, which probably would have daunted a few people, but Tala stuck his ground.

"No. He's not going back there,"  
"Fine. We'll take him to the animal shelter. But we've got to do it now,"  
I can see why Kai's so determined not to let Tala keep it. It may seem insensitive. but that kitten isn't going to go anywhere in the state it's in. Kai is not going to let Tala look after something that could very well die on him. Tala needs teaching about the real world, but he knows enough about _that_ side of it already. Things die. Tala's had too many people die on him in the past.

You see, living in a small space is good information-wise, even if your roommate is Kai.

"Why?"  
"Because it's not well Tala,"  
Why does this have to happen on my birthday? I'm all for taking the kitten to the vet but I don't want it to need the vet in the first place.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

The vets can be a very, very depressing place if it wants to be. Not content with giving dogs and cats nightmares about being spayed and inoculated, it also manages to scare the owners. There's an old lady with a cat in a basket that she's got clutched to her lap, and a man with no shirt on and baggy jeans holding the lead on a Bull Mastiff. Tala, Kai, Rei and I are all sat in the waiting room. Kai, Rei and I are hoping against hope that we're next on the list, because the affection between Tala and that kitten is heightening every minute. Kai looks annoyed and agitated. Rei looks quite calm though, and a little upset like me. He likes cats a lot. Probably the potential neko-jin in him. Tala is sat next to Kai looking bored, one hand absent-mindedly stroking the kitten between it's ears. The kitten has gone quiet and quite still. And I'm dying for the bathroom.

We're the last ones to be seen. The owner of the dog comes out Bull Mastiff-less, and we hear the vet telling him he can pick 'Arthur' up tomorrow any time. The lady with the cat comes out beaming and clutching the basket even tighter to her chest, a little black and white head poking out meowing loudly. And then there's us.  
"What have you got here then?"  
I wonder if Tala could give the woman a meaner glared if he tried. Although I think Kai could practise the father inside him on Tala, Tala won't stand being treated like a child.

"We found it on our balcony. He's sick," Tala said, holding the cat out for the vet to see.

"Yes, it does look ill,"

She took it gingerly and disappeared into the examining room. Maybe we're not allowed in there because we're not owners. But actually, she never said we could go in there. I think we just don't want to see what she's thinking whilst she examines the kitten.

Kai stands up and disappears into the second part of the building after a while, where the shelter is. Animals of all sorts are for sale in there, after being abandoned or born alone. Rei follows him after a while, and eventually it's just me and Tala.

Tala has his arms folded on his chest, eyes closed. He's not asleep though I don't think. In fact, he looks exactly like he and Kai look when there's a Beyblade match going on. Like they did in the World Championships. Coming to think of it; I haven't trained in a long time. I'm not as motivated, what with the rent to pay, and the fact that Kai doesn't seem to be blading anymore and therefore isn't getting me up at the crack of dawn to train with him. I wonder if Tala blades anymore. I never thought of it. In fact, I don't think I've seen Wolborg or Dranzer since we moved our stuff into the apartment.

Forty five minutes later, the door opens and the vet pops her head out. Her call for us to come in is intercepted by Kai and Rei, appearing just in time from the other wing. They slip into the room behind her, and shut the door behind them. Tala rolls his eyes.

"What?"  
"They think I can't handle a sick cat without having some emotional issue with it," he snarls.

"Can you?"

"What?"  
"Handle a sick cat without having some emotional issue?"  
He rolls his eyes and goes back to reading the notice-board. Ten minutes later, Kai and Rei appear with a cardboard box in hand.

They walk past us, making for the door.

"Is the kitten in there?" Tala asks, kind of quietly, a pretty emotionless expression on his face even though his blue eyes are fixed on the cardboard box as if he were wishing. If he gets glittery eyes I may change my judgement of Tala being scary altogether. And that would be something apocalyptic. The terrifying Russian Beyblader changed in an instant, in my eyes anyway. I may also loose all the manliness I'm supposed to be gaining at this age and cry.

"Come on," Kai says, simply, pulling open the door. We leave quietly, and no-body says anything until we're stood outside the apartment door and I'm fumbling around for the keys in my pocket.  
"What's in the box?"  
"You'll see when we get inside,"  
I had little idea as to what it was, but both Tala and I had a feeling that it wasn't the kitten. I opened up the front door, and three letters fell out of the doorjamb and onto the mat.

"They're all for you Kai,"

Kai ripped them open on the spot, which surprised me. He mumbled something to himself as he read them, screwed them up and threw them into the hallway bin.

"Were they from that lawyer?"  
"Yes,"  
"What is he saying now?"  
"That my Dad can take legal action against me and Mr Dickenson if I don't go and talk about moving in with my Dad soon,"

"Is that true?"  
"No,"

"Why does he say it then?"  
"He thinks I'm an idiot,"

I itch to go and get the note but once again decide to put it off 'til later. It's my birthday afterall, and I shouldn't be bogged down on my birthday.

Whilst I was in the kitchen making everyone a drink, I hear a lot of whispering behind the closed living room door and the rustling of newspaper. Something plastic hit the edge of the television, and then everything was silent.  
Right.

I peek into the living room, and I'm greeted by the three most powerful bladers there are in the world at this moment of time, all kneeling down in a small line. Like they've been caught red-handed.

"Erm…what's going on?"  
"Happy birthday Max," Rei says. He looks very amused. What's happening? Please don't tell me Tyson's going to come jumping out of a cake or something. I couldn't be dealing with that today. Rei leans behind Kai and Tala and slides out a large plastic tank filled with water, with lots of greenery inside it.

"A last-minute birthday present,"  
I take the tank and look inside it. There, sat in the middle of some plants, is a turtle!

"A turtle!"

"Yep. Happy birthday,"

A little later, whilst I'm feeding my turtle in my bed, my room is suddenly crowded with everyone who is residing or staying in this house.

"Hello," I say to the three of them, as they get comfy on my bed. We get into a conversation about everything, really, and I return my turtle to it's tank, which we plan to actually keep downstairs in the living room. Rei goes to bed, and then it's just Kai, Tala and I left.

"Did the kitten die?" Tala asks, after a moment of silence.

"Yes,"  
"You could have just told me,"  
"I know. It's complicated," Kai says, giving me a look.

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Please review! It's my birthday in four days and I have such little shame that I don't mind reviews 'cos it's my birthday soon!


	9. Chapter 9

Thanks for the birthday wishes! I had a good birthday, and the start of school has been good, so i felt in the mood to write a new chapter!

Enjoy!

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I wake in the morning to the smell of coffee. _Really_ strong coffee. That must mean Kai's in my room. Kai makes his coffee strong enough to dissolve metal. But the light's too bright for me to open my eyes just yet. I think I'll just lie here and inhale coffee-smell for a while….

"I know you're awake Max. Get up,"  
"No,"  
"Get up Max,"  
"No! Don't be mean,"  
I feel all sulky now because I can't say: you've got to be nice to me; its my birthday. Eventually I open my eyes because I know I'll be the victim of one of Kai's awakening-methods if I don't. I spy my little turtle paddling in it's tank.

"Thanks for the turtle Kai. You picked him up at the vets, didn't you?"  
"The guy in the shelter said he was being used for a football, and he got kicked under the guttering and ended up in someone's drain. They fished him out and hadn't found a home for him. I thought that was a suitably saddening sob-story for you," he says, drinking his extra strong coffee. What would Kai do without the coffee machine? We have two in the flat, so if one breaks we've got another, but if they both broke Kai might have a seizure or something.

"Max, get up now, or I'm getting you up,"

"Where's Tala and Rei?" I say, to distract him until he's drunk the majority of his coffee. Kai becomes quite mellow after he's had his morning coffee. Although, to be honest, this coffee probably isn't his first in the morning. He needs about two to become mellow enough to allow things like me knocking over lamps etc. I try telling Kai that he drinks too much caffeine, but he and Tala look at me funny when I say that. As if coffee is completely necessary for Kai. Maybe it is. Maybe Kai would _really_ have a seizure if the coffee machines broke. Or maybe I'm just a little too tired to reason with myself that Kai might just _really_ like coffee.  
"They're making breakfast. Tala went to go and see the landlord by the way,"  
I sit up very quickly.  
"What?"  
"He went to see the landlord. They had an argument,"  
"Oh God, what happened?"  
"Tala says he told him we had a late rent check again, and he was pretty angry. He called Tala some names, so Tala did something to his doorbell. It won't stop chiming,"

I had to laugh at that, even though it's probably going to get us kicked out of here.

"So does Tala feel ok today?"  
"He's fine,"  
'Fine', in Kai vocabulary, means that Tala is his usual self today. Which is good, because I hate it when Tala isn't feeling good.

"Get up,"  
The smell of coffee was slowly waking me up, and I wondered if I should try to start drinking coffee again. I choked on it last time. Before I could decide, the duvet was whipped from my prone body and I made a sort of wailing sound.

"Kai!"  
"Get up,"

I _eventually_ staggered into the bathroom and woke myself up under the shower. Just as I was beginning to warm up, I hear the unmistakable 'thrum' of the kitchen tap being spurred into life.

"No!"

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

"I hate you," I snarl at Tala, but he's too busy cleaning Wolborg to pay me any attention. I've discovered that Tala keeps Wolborg safe and sound in a case in his room, and now that he has spare time he's cleaning him up. Considering that he lives in an apartment with two other people to share the housework with, he doesn't go to school and he does have a job, it's amazing that he has such precious spare time. I haven't spruced up Draciel in ages.

"Why did you do that? You knew you'd make the shower go cold,"

"Thought it might wake you up some more,"  
"I don't need you to take it into your hands to wake me up!" I protest, feeding my so-far nameless turtle. Tala looks up from Wolborg's chip and raises an eyebrow, "Did you miss your naptime or something?"

It's good that Tala's feeling better, but why does he have to act like Kai? I don't bother replying and go into the kitchen. I'm met with about ten letters, stacked up on the kitchen table.

"Who are they all from?"  
"Six are for you,"  
I swiped the appropriate six open. Probably from my extended family.

Yep, I was right. From my grandparents, aunties, uncles and cousins from across the world.

"They're all a day late,"  
Kai didn't say anything to that. He was busy eyeing up the four remaining envelopes. Like someone reluctantly dragged along on a fishing trip might eye their first catch as it flops around in front of them helplessly. I haven't given him that note yet…  
"Are they from your Dad's lawyer?"  
"Two are. One is from my Dad, and one from Voltaire,"  
"Can your Grandfather write from prison?"  
"Obviously," Kai grumbled. I left him to read the letters and snooped upstairs to retrieve the note. I slid back downstairs and took it into Kai.

"Look what I found,"

He read it, then quietly put it back down on the table.  
"Thanks,"  
Wasn't he going to ask when I found it? Where I found it?...obviously not. Maybe Tala's in his usual mood today, but Kai looks a little spaced.

Rei bursts in through the front door, eyes all big and wide, his arms laden with food shopping.  
"Whoa," he says, dumping the stuff by the hall table. It's nice that Rei's so courteous. He said he felt guilty because we had to buy a lot of extra food to feed him, and this morning out cupboards were clean empty. So earlier this morning he said he'd go food shopping. I offered to go with him but he refused the help. Maybe I should try and model myself on Rei sometimes. Then maybe my mother won't worry about me twenty four seven

"What is it?"

"Have you checked your downstairs mail box?"  
"I didn't think we had one. The landlord says he doesn't trust them,"  
"Well, yes, you do have one. And it's _overflowing_ Max. There's letters spilling all over the foyer floor,"

"Are they all for us?"  
"They're all for you!"

It took a minute for my mind to process what that meant. And when I did, I nearly banged my head against the wall. Dammit. The fan-mail has caught up with me once again.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

I'm shin-deep in fan mail, staring out at this cascade of white and pink and red, whilst Tala and Kai snicker in the background. It's alright for Tala to laugh, but Kai's gone through this before. We were passing through Moscow on our way to St Petersburg so that Kai could pick some more stuff from home, and he came back onto the tour bus looking annoyed. Someone had leaked his address and he said his hallway as awash with fan-mail. It's happened at the Granger dojo too, although Tyson was too amused to be bothered about his father slowly imploding in the background.

Rei practically has to wade through to join me.

"The postman was livid. He said he had to use about three bags for these. Your landlord's bursting a blood vessel upstairs,"  
"Oh God. This is all for my birthday, isn't it?"  
"Looks like it,"  
Rei ripped open one, and his face went a little pale.  
"What does it say?"  
"I think you're too innocent for it Max,"

I snatch the card off him and read it.

Oh.

"Ew," I say, throwing it into the pile. Upstairs, I can slowly hear the nearing sound of my landlord barrelling down the stairs. He's obviously using the stairs to vent some anger, because his shoes are slapping against the steps and I can hear him breathing heavily from down here. Eventually he appears in the foyer, a big ball of red. He glares furiously at Tala, then at Kai, then at me.

"This!" he cried, stabbing a finger at the mail, "Is not on!"  
"I know, I was just going to-"  
"You'd better clean this up, and you're paying for the damages,"  
"How do pieces of paper constitute as damage?" Kai asks from where he's leant against the back of the foyer. He's right. They are just pieces of paper. All we have to do is collect them up, give them to the BBA office where they hold all of this until someone wants to read it, then it's done. There's only about 100 or so.

"The postman had to break the mail box to get the first load in,"

Ah.

"Then get him to pay the damages," Tala says. I wince, wanting to hide behind Rei. I'm starting to think by the time the damage is fully done, a smile won't do any good.

"And don't think you're going to get away with breaking my doorbell," the landlord bellowed, pointing at Tala and going purple in the face, "It won't stop ringing!"

Tala folds his arms across his chest and sneers.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

We have to pay for damages to the landlord's personal property. We have to pay for damages to the landlord's property in the foyer. We have to pay for a medical bill after the landlord's blood pressure got too high and he took himself to the hospital. We have to pay for the 'emotional stress' caused the landlord. The postman wants to sue because he says he's damaged his back carrying those bags.

I really think that I'm going to lose all of the courage that I've mustered up over the years and just ball like a baby until somebody takes care of it for me.

The flat is very, very quiet, and I don't know what to do. Tala's in the kitchen making Rei's last meal here, which means I'm banished from the kitchen. Rei's upstairs in his room packing, but I don't want to interrupt because he's calling Mariah on his cell phone. Unbeknownst to me it's her birthday today. I bet she won't get a flood of fan-mail up in the Chinese mountains. I also don't want to go upstairs because I'd have to be very, very quiet. Kai's in his room, fast asleep. Migraine, I think. He spent the few hours after the fan-mail fiasco being told my Rei to take a painkiller or something, but Kai's too stubborn. He eventually went to bed. I've never had a migraine before, but they look painful. Rei and Kai both had one once whilst on the plane to Australia. Rei nearly strangled Tyson when he began to sing along to his new CD, and I think Kai was seriously considering strapping Kenny to the roof when we stocked up for fuel. I have to admit, sometime the Chief's clicking on his laptop can get a bit annoying.

So, whilst everyone else is busy, I'm sat in the living room clocking up the many damages that we are going to have to pay for. I don't know if the postman was serious or not about suing the BBA. If he does, I wonder how that will affect us. We'd have to held accountable for it, but we can't afford to help BBA out. Not that they need helping out, they're a multi-million cooperation.

"Max,"  
"Yeah?"  
"Lunch is ready. Get Kai and Rei,"  
"Ok,"

I like it how Tala's voice drops a little when Kai as a migraine, but when I got the flu he continued a this normal volume. I head on upstairs to get them both, deciding it would be unfair to shout for them. I pass the front door, and jump a mile when someone knocks from the other side. I look through the spy hole, and see someone I don't recognise out there. It's not Alfred the lawyer, that's for sure. He's not in a suit, so he can't be the postman's lawyer. Can he? Oh please let it not to be the postman's lawyer. I open the door, but keep the chain on. After Alfred the lawyer, and discovery that half my fan base knows my address, I'm not taking my chances.

"Hello?"  
"Hello,"

The man's pretty tall, about 6'2", wearing a dark blue polo shirt and jeans with a brown belt. He's odd black hair that's bordering blue side, and eyes an odd green colour.

"Hello Max. Is Kai in today?"

You know, I have a feeling that I know this man is.

"Um, yes, he is. He's...he's upstairs, shall I get him?"

"Please,"

I leave the door open with the chain on and bolt upstairs. I hurry into the dark of Kai's room and shake the figure in the bed. He latches his hand around my wrist and pulls me down to the floor.  
"Ow,"  
"Max, go away,"  
"No, there's someone at the door for you. And it's not the lawyer,"

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

"Do they look the same then? Father and son similarities?"  
"Not the same, no. He has black-blue hair. Weird colour. And he didn't look much like Kai. He was all tanned and…smiley,"

Rei let out a long breath and looked at the kitchen door again. He's due to go and catch is plane in a few hours, and he's busy checking his tickets and trying to snoop with Tala and I at the same time. He missed Kai's Dad's big entrance, because I hadn't roused him from his room in his time.

"I don't know why you're making a fuss about it," Tala sighs, stabbing a potato with his fork. We're eating around the coffee table, and I'm not commenting on Tala actually eating without encouragement, because I know that would put him off.

"Because we don't know _anything_ about Kai's family,"  
"Yes you do,"  
"Well, Ok, we know a bit," Me more than the rest of my team mates, "But not enough to really _know_,"  
"Why do you even need to know?" Tala eats another potato slowly, "It's not that interesting,"  
"It is for us. It's alright for you, you already know everything,"  
"Well I have known him for…a very long time,"  
I sigh, and keep going with eating my dinner. They've been in the kitchen for a while now, and so far there has been no violence, so that's a good sign. Particularly after the look Kai gave his Dad when he saw him in the doorway.

Oh. Spoke too soon.

They're shouting at each other now. Loudly. I can't understand a word they're saying. Even though Tala is looking at his plate and looks to be concentrating on eating, I know that he's listening intently to what's going on. He and Rei have the characteristics borrowed from the lethal hunters of the animal kingdom to help them out in situations like this. I, on the other hand, am about as subtle as a water buffalo.

I don't know what they're saying!...I've learnt a few Russian words, although if you introduced yourself to me in the language you might as well be talking in tongues. I know the words 'whining', 'bastard', 'leave me alone', and 'what'. Which, when you string those together, doesn't make the best sentence to get about in Russia: What? Leave me alone whining bastard.

"Do you think we should intervene?"  
"No," Tala said, quickly.

"Why not?"  
"You'd be eaten alive in there Max,"  
We go back to our dinner, Rei and I wincing against the shouting and the bangs that make the kitchen table sound like it's about to bite the dust. Kai loses his cool…well, never, so when I heard a final word shouted which I knew meant: bastard, I was surprised to hear the kitchen door leading into the hall being wrenched open, then slammed closed. Upstairs, Kai's bedroom door shut so hard and fast it sounded like a shot gun. Tala finished his meal - almost serenely - and piled his plate on top of Rei's. He stood up quickly, and left the room.

Rei watched as he made his way upstairs, then spun around to look at me, his ponytail doing an impression of a whip, "Tala's going to go and talk to him?"  
"Oh, it'll be fine, Tala's almost as good a peace maker as Kai,"

Rei didn't look so freaked after that, but still a little unsure. I don't blame. This is the guy who associates himself with Bryan. The Bryan whose known for his psychotic tendencies being part of his natural character. We waited until Kai's Dad ejected himself from the kitchen and left the apartment, before bustling into the kitchen and trying to act like nothing happened whilst loading the dishwasher.

"Why do you think they were arguing?"  
"Well Kai obviously doesn't want to go back,"  
"But why? What's so bad about being the chance to live with your parent?"  
I'm a liar. Well, not really, because I don't know the full story, but I'm not saying what I really know and think. I wish Kai would tell me what was wrong, and why he doesn't want to stay with his father anymore. I wish Kai could tell me what's bothering him when he tosses and turns and goes pale in the night. I want Kai to tell me why he's been drinking coffee every minute of the day almost obsessively.

I'm sure it's all connected in some weird and wonderful way, but Kai won't admit to anything and he's hardly an easy person to read. I can imagine even Tala struggles sometimes.

I go and check on my turtle, and try to come up with some names. It's hard, because I wanted Tala and Kai to have a say in it. Not that I'd listen to them if they suggested a name that I didn't like…it's just that I want to be polite.

Talking about politeness, there's that message still on my cell from my Mum. Telling me that I'm rude and insensitive for not thinking about her and how she'd like for me to want to live with her for a change, instead of always siding with my Dad.

I got so annoyed by her message I threw the phone in the wash basket, so it will be muffled if she ever decides to ring again. What is it with parents? They throw their heart and soul into an argument, making themselves the complete martyr of the story, and they don't even understand what they're going on about. I love my Mum a lot, and I miss her. But she's a _really_ awful person to argue with.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

I'm so tired I might just curl up where I stand and go to sleep. I might get some peace then. Although considering I'd be lying down right in the kitchen doorway; probably not. I've been staying up with Rei, waiting until I can go with him to the airport. Tala's in the shower upstairs, and I'm tempted to get back at him for what he did to me this morning, but I know that if I do that, I will have to deal with a pissy. And a pissy Tala is a Tala who will be awkward the entire journey to the airport, the duration that we're there, and all the journey back.

Kai's going to stay at home to house-and-turtle-sit. I've only seen him once since he went up to his bedroom. He's been skulking around on the balcony in the warm evening as it moved on into night, brooding like only a friend of Bryan and Tala could.

The shower switches off upstairs and I move into the living room to sit next to Rei.

"Ring us when you get home. And don't put Mariah on the phone this time, she's scary to listen to over the phone,"  
"Why?"

"Because she talks to much. I like Mariah but she makes me feel exhausted,"  
"Try living in the same village as her day in day out. I think I'm sort of used to it though,"

The bathroom door opens and in a moment or two Tala appears at the door. He's wearing a grey jacket over a steel-blue long-sleeved t-shirt, and grey jeans with a blue belt keeping them to his person. His hair is all mussed up and damp from the shower. God I want a shower. I like feeling clean before a long journey. I might just crawl into the bath when I get back, although I'd probably fall asleep and drown.  
"Ready?"  
"Yes,"  
As Rei makes sure he's got everything one last time, I run out onto the balcony to talk to Kai. It's cool outside but Kai's still in just a shirt and jeans, a fixed stare being cast out over the view.

"Kai?"

"Hn?"  
"We're going now. Tala's put the key on the hall table, so you can lock it afterwards. I'm going to take mine with me so we can let ourselves in when we get back,"

"Hm,"  
"Kai?"  
"What?"  
"What's wrong?"  
"Nothing,"  
"Kai, about your-"

"It's none of your business,"  
Fine.  
"Did you hear what I said about the key?"  
"I'm not deaf, I heard,"

Time for sarcasm.

"Well you're in a wonderful mood. Kai, what's bothering you? Seriously Kai, after this afternoon…what's wrong?"  
"I don't need your help," he snapped his head round to look at me, giving me a molten lava glare that makes me wince like when he first used to use them on the team, "Stop bothering me about this Max, stay out of it. I don't need _anyone's_ help, especially not yours,"  
"Fine then, I won't give you my help,"

I slide the balcony door shut behind me and join Rei and Tala in the doorway.  
"You Ok?"  
"Yeah, fine. Told Kai about the key. Lets go,"

SSSSSSSSSSSSS

Next time:

I know I shouldn't be worried but I can't help it…Tala's gone….

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Review!


	10. Chapter 10

Thanks for all the reviews! Some big stuff is going to happen in the next chapter (chapter 11 already, wow!) so…well, I'll just let you guess.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Tala's gone. And no-one, not even Kai, knows where he's gone. Tala and I accompanied Rei to the airport, leaving Kai at home to look after the house and get some peace after the Dad-fiasco. We got back at about eleven o' clock, and Kai was sat outside on the balcony, probably enjoying the view and the quiet. I don't think he gets much of his precious quiet anymore, even though he's not with the Bladebreakers. I joined him whilst Tala went upstairs, acting as if the incident earlier on hadn't happened, even though my hackles still raised with anger at the thought of how he'd behaved. As Tala left to go upstairs…that was the last time we saw him. And that was twelve hours ago. Now, we still have no idea where he's got to. Kai kept a look of calm, and I don't think he's too worried. He told me last night that Tala's done disappearing acts in the past. The thing is, _I've_ never known Tala to do this, so that sentiment doesn't really comfort me like it does him. I know I shouldn't be too worried about the very talented downright scary Beyblader from the Abbey, but I can't help it. Despite having that title, he's still not much older than me and he's still suffering from the coma (amongst other things) in lots of different ways.

Whilst Kai went to bed telling me I worry too much, I stayed up in my room and waited for Tala to come home. I fell asleep at about three, and woke up to the smell of no breakfast cooking, at about ten o' clock. That in itself made me edgy. Tala hadn't come to gently prise me out of bed, and he wasn't downstairs making breakfast. I staggered out of bed and into the kitchen, where I'm currently sat. Although now the kitchen's short of a smashed plate, which was adorning the floor when I walked in a while ago.

"Did you drop it?" I ask Kai's back, as he drops the shards into the bin. I know Kai didn't drop it, but today I feel like at least pretending I'm innocent. He doesn't reply, but instead switches on the coffee machine.

"How many cups of coffee have you had today?"  
"None of your business Max,"  
None of my business? What is it with all this coldness? Since when did Kai turn back to the bastard he was behaving like when we first met him?

"Don't think I haven't forgotten about what happened last night?"  
"Why, what happened?"  
He pours himself another cup of coffee. I notice he doesn't sit down. He's stood in front of the window, one hand in his pocket, gaze fixed to outside.

"Where do you think Tala's gone?"

"I don't know,"

I bite my lip and worry it for a bit, "Do you think he's in trouble Kai?"  
….

I'd be a lot more comforted if Kai said something right now.

"Kai?"  
"What do you want me to say Max?"

"That he's Ok and he's probably going to come back anymore? And that I worry way too much?"  
"That…" he said, turning to look at me squarely the first time this morning, "Is what you _want_ to hear,"

"So you don't think that's going to happen?"  
"I'm not God Max," he says with an agitated sigh, and takes himself and his coffee into the living room.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

I wish Rei was here. He'd probably take some sort of control, since I'm dithering around like an idiot, and Kai hasn't done anything in a while. He'd also most likely ring Mr Dickenson for me, saving me from having to do it myself.

"Mr Dickenson?"  
"Is that you Max?"  
"Yes. It is. Um…I need to tell you something,"  
"If this is about the fan-mail Max, I'm so sorry, and we've sorted anything out. Our PR man accidentally slipped your address to some eager media, that gave it to some of the fan-base. Most of the things have been paid off now…"

I let him ramble on for a while, letting it all wash over me since I'd have enough of dealing with money these past few months to hear other's talking about it too. Finally, there was a pause, and I leapt in.  
"Sir, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about - ah!"

I _swear_ Kai is made of smoke. I turn a little and he's just stood there, right behind me.

"Max, are you Ok?"  
"Oh, I'm fine Sir, it was just…it was nothing,"

Kai's stare is making my entire body tremble in a 'this is all going to go very bad' sort of way. By the way that he seems three feet taller and his stare is going right through to my core, I don't think he's too happy about me being on the phone to Mr Dickenson. I cover up the mouth-piece and try to hold my ground.

"What?" I enquire coolly, "I'm talking,"  
"Why are you talking to him?"  
"Because he's our guardian at the moment! And Tala's…missing,"  
He pauses. I think he's trying to weigh up in his mind whether he'd call Tala 'missing' or not.

"Max, he could walk in the door any minute,"  
I think he went for 'is in temporary absence' instead of 'missing'.

"But on the other hand, he might not do! I'm not going to ask Mr D to put out a manhunt for him but I just thought he should know. He's been gone for a long time, for no apparent reason,"

He makes a 'fuh' noise and turns quickly on his heel. At that moment I couldn't believe how similar to Tala he looked. His back straight and lean, and his head turned up in that way that showed the Russian blader was proud no matter what. Leaving the scene whether others want him to or not. Doing anything whether others wanted him to or not. The things Kai and the Blitzkrieg Boys were taught in the Abbey - in amongst the obvious stuff like Beyblading and obedience - must have been beneficial, whatever price they paid. One thing that they can do, is hold their own ground. And not by having bravado and ego, but by being completely in control of everything, especially themselves.

The living room door glides shut.  
"Max?"  
"Oh, sorry Sir. It's just…well, we dropped Rei off at the airport last night, and when we got back, Kai and I stayed up for a little while. But Tala…Tala seemed to have disappeared,"  
"What do you mean?"  
"He's been…'missing'…since about eleven o' clock last night. And…Kai and I don't know why or where he's gone. I just…I thought you should know,"

What follows in excruciating. I'm grilled about everything Tala-centric. Has he been acting odd lately, has the coma brought any more problems recently, has Tala ever done this before, why did I think he went, does Tala _really_ need the medication the hospital gave him or will he be able to go a few days without it?

That was the point where I thought my brain might melt out of my ears. I had no idea! Everything I knew about Tala seemed miniscule when it came to answering all of Mr Dickenson's rushed questions. Kai appeared after I stammered through answering the first few, assuring Mr Dickenson that he hasn't been acting odd lately, and that I had no idea why Tala would run away, and put the phone on speaker phone. Suddenly Mr Dickenson's frantic interrogations were twice as loud, almost deafening, and I felt like throwing myself under the couch cushions.

"Mr Dickenson,"  
"Kai, is that you?"  
"Hn,"  
"Kai, do you have any idea if Tala disappeared on his own accord or not,"  
'Or not' meaning what, exactly? I've been worrying about that myself for a while, but I've been trying to block out that voice that says Tala didn't leave the flat on his own free will.

"What do you mean 'or not' Sir?"

There's silence for a moment as he processes that he's on speaker phone, "Well…I don't mean to alarm you boys, but your address has been leaked out to a large number of people, as you can see with the fan-mail that Max received. Anyone could have got hold of your address. And…" he tailed off. Someone shuffled around in the background, and there were furtive voices trying to get his attention. Papers were shuffled and tapped against a hard surface, then Mr Dickenson's voice echoed around the hallway again.

"Look, boys, I want to take this as seriously as I possibly can. Better safe than sorry,"

"Mr Dickenson, Tala can take care of himself,"

Mr D gives a long, impatient sigh and says quickly, "Ok, I'll only put some enquiries around for now, but if Tala doesn't come home by the end of today we need to take this a step further,"

He disconnects and Kai puts the phone back on it's cradle.

"That wasn't the most fun conversation I've ever had. At least he's not going to tell the police or anything,"  
"Of course he is Max. Whatever you like to think of Mr Dickenson and all of his 'caring-ways', he's still the front of his own cooperation. He doesn't want to lose a blader he put under his wing. Paul the PR man would have a hard time covering that up,"  
I stand and just let myself be confused for a minute or two.

"Kai, make your mind up! One minute you say Tala's fine and that he can take care of himself, the next minute you're saying Mr Dickenson could 'lose' him, and not telling me that he could be safe!"  
He doesn't say anything, so I carry on, "Chose. Either Tala is safe and you think, being his closest friend, that he will come home soon. Or tell me exactly what's on your mind and who you think might have got something to do this,"

When I draw myself up to my full height, it doesn't have the same effect, but at least I can draw myself up as now I proudly own a spine.  
"It's not Voltaire,"  
"What?" I say, deflating from my high horse where I've stuck my head in the clouds all too easily. Kai sticks his hands in his pockets.

"If you want me to stay something, I will do: it's not Voltaire,"

Well that's a small relief. I follow him into the kitchen as he gets _another_ mug of coffee.

"How do you know?"  
"Because I know he's securely locked up, and even if he could get someone else to do something for him, I'd know it was him immediately. My Grandfather's a showman, just like Andrei is,"  
"Whose Andrei?"  
"My Dad,"

"Oh, yeah. Why are you calling him by his first name?"

He turns and gives me a wry smirk, which slightly uplifts my mood quite a bit, "It makes me feel better,"

I want to ask why they were arguing, why Kai is digging his heels in about going back with his father, but I know I'd be pushing it.

And I need to think about Tala.

"So, assuming that Tala…otherwise exited the apartment…who…helped him along?"  
"Are you not wanting to say the words 'kidnapped' or 'taken'?"  
"No. So, what do you think?"  
Kai folds his arms and says nothing. I can tell he's thinking and let me think for myself. Kai is renowned for not talking things through in our team. I don't think he's thought through anything aloud with any one of his, even if it's got something to do with Beyblade.

I try to get immersed in my own thoughts about Tala - slouched as I am in the kitchen chair - but I become jittery and nervous by ideas that he really has been kidnapped and the Tala that I always - not just recently - thought could hold his own, is actually in trouble.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Kai was right. The police have become our bestest buddies these past two hours. We were eating a really late lunch when they were at the door, asking questions and to see Tala's room.

"I thought you couldn't consider him a missing person's until he's gone for a few days?" Kai asks frostily, stood with his arms folded and making sure they know he doesn't want them there. One officer, obviously trying the be jovial in the face of a teenage and his missing friend, winks at Kai and says: "Tala's case has been fast-forwarded. High priority. Circumstances are…increasingly suspicious,"

Bull. Mr Dickenson pulled strings. That makes me very angry and very guilty all at the same time. Mr Dickenson told me he wouldn't do this. And I can think of hundreds of people in this city alone waiting for the police to pay attention to a loved one gone missing, sat in their homes worrying if the phone would ring with even an acknowledgment of their dilemma. I can imagine people go missing and families' and friends' lives fall apart, and the police wouldn't know a thing 'officially' until they can find the time.

Not that I'm going to be _too_ furious with the police. If I get high and mighty, they might not help us find Tala.

Slipping a glance at Kai, I see that he's not going to give a damn whether he ticks off his these offices. He leaves the room in a blur of blue and grey and that 'Oh-my-god-evacuate-the-building' glare that he's so well known for. I don't know why he's so angry. They're helping us to find Tala, however unmorally.

"Well, we don't have any ideas at the moment. We're going to start looking around, digging about and seeing if anyone's seen or heard anything. We'll try and cover every possibility, from a red-head wondering the streets looking confused to someone seeing him being bundled off into a van. Don't you worry, Ok kid? And tell your friend we're going to do all we can, but at this stage it's always slow and tricky,"  
They let themselves out, and I go to rouse Kai from whatever cranny that he's dug himself into to be angry in.

"Kai?"

"What?"  
"What's wrong?"  
"Nothing,"  
"Look, we already had an argument involving your idea that nothing's wrong…ever. So just don't say that right now. What's wrong? Those guys are only trying to help. I know it's unethical but we could get Tala back,"  
Kai opens his mouth to say something, but instead of words forming he just makes his non-committal grunt and turns away from me.  
"Kai?"

"Nothing. You're right Max,"

Those words have rarely ever spilled forth from the great Hiwatari's mouth before, so now I'm simply confused.

"They are just trying to help,"

"I know they are,"  
"Then why are…why are you so cold about it? Is it because you don't want it interfered with?"  
"No,"  
"Then what is it?"

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Kai's about as talkative as a cumquat this evening. To be perfectly honest, I haven't talked much either. The only reason I haven't started being frantic yet is because there is the distinct possibility Tala just walked off. Or so I hope. Kai and I have simply co-existed this evening, and that's it. There' so much power going into thinking about where the hell Tala's got to that the air's beginning to heat up. I'm so worried my stomach's like a sailor's knot. I want Tala to come home. What I want is for him to come home and be perfectly Ok. I can imagine Kai wants the same, but he doesn't look outwardly concerned. He's being his usual self, and refusing to tell me anything about he's being snappy with the police. He makes himself another coffee. The whole place is smelling of that now. Usually it's balanced out with the pancake smell or that cold smell of the freezer being opened constantly as Tala gets out an ice lolly. How depressing.

I go out into the hall and call Rei. He says I've got to keep him posted and he thinks I should tell the police to check out Boris.

Rei made a good call, but I can imagine that the police have already thought of that. Then again, they might not have done, and could be working on the fact Tala wandered off.

I hate all this waiting around. And the phone won't stop ringing. I don't know how, but both my Mum and Dad have heard, along with Tyson, his Grandpa and his Dad, Kenny, the Majestics, the All Starz, and half of the BBA. Including the PR man. I pretend that the connection is breaking up when I realise it's him.

"Who was it?"  
"The PR man. Wanting to know if we want Tala to be 'missing' or 'kidnapped',"  
"What were all those duck noises you were making for?"  
"They weren't duck noises! I was pretending the phone was cracking up, so that I didn't have to talk to him!"  
"Sounded like you were pretending to be attacked by ducks so that you didn't have to talk to him,"  
"Ha-ha,"

He gives me a sideways look, the remote control balanced on his knee and his attention still partially on the news.  
"Since when did you become so scathing?"  
"Since now, Ok?"  
My Dad used to laugh when I got like this, i.e. all het up and annoyed. He said I become a different, angrier person. He used to say it was like my Mum when she was 'PMSing'. It was very embarrassing when my Dad would say 'you're in a PMS mood' whenever I'd get like that. And Emily once told me that there was scientific research going into the discovery of whether there is a male equivalent that can spark 'the PMS mood'. Emily and I are friends but she is a bizarre person.

I don't think Kai's going to say that I'm in a PMS mood, but he does chuckle at me. He goes back to the news, and we sit in silence as somebody drones on and on about the stock market.

"Do you understand any of this?"  
"A little,"  
"Do you pay attention to it?"  
"No. But it's in the clause of my grandfather's will: I don't get my money if I don't learn how to be a good businessman,"  
"Jeez, are you sure there isn't a clause your grandfather put about not being able to breathe until you're eighteen, or you don't get your money,"

"I wouldn't put it past him,"  
I try to take my mind of Tala, if only for a few minutes, "So what were you and your father arguing about?"

"Nothing important. We always argue,"

"Really?"  
"Yes Max, why do you think I don't live with him?"  
"Is that why you left the first time? Cos you argue so much?"  
"We're very different people," he replies, after a heavy pause. Good answer. Kai should be a PR man. I decide not to push it any further and feed my turtle. I scratch over a few names for my new pet on my list as I look at him splash around looking as content as a semi-aquatic animal with a shell can. But I'm still undecided as to what to call him.  
"What about Stan?" I ask, out-loud.  
"Whose Stan?"

"No, I meant as a name for my turtle,"

He gives me a look that shows, visually, exactly what I think of Emily, "Oh. Stan's not a good name for a turtle,"  
"No. I know. But I wanted you to suggest something,"  
"I don't name pets,"  
You also don't do more than three emotions, physical contact, or heart-to-hearts. There's lots of things you don't do.

"Think of a name,"  
"No,"  
"Please! It's difficult. Haven't you ever had to name a pet before?"  
"No,"  
"You've never had a pet?"

The FTSE 100 is announced to have gone up by whatever in the moment it takes Kai to think, "No,"  
"Even if you had, you wouldn't tell me, would you?"

He doesn't say anything to that. I put the lid back on the turtle's little aquatic world and sit back down again.

"One of my first pets were two little kittens. Boo and Heidi,"

Silence.  
"Then I had a dog called Maisy. He was actually my cousins' but they moved and couldn't keep him anymore…then I had a goldfish called Sully and a hamster called Drake. One day Drake fell into Sully's tank and went berserk and the pair of them scuffled. Drake broke his leg and Sully could never really turn right properly without tilting almost horizontally,"

Kai's giving me a look that must mean he's comparing me to some sort of freak of nature.

"I bet you _have_ had pets before Kai, you just don't want to admit it,"  
"I think I might have had a cat once," he says absent-mindedly, going back to the news.

"Really? What was it called?"  
"I don't remember. I think it was my parents, and it was already old when I was born. It must have died when I was small,"  
"Oh. Any other pets?"  
"No,"  
"Are you sure?"

Kai sighed like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders and glared at me, "When I stayed with Andrei, I had to share the room with two goldfish. That is the extent of my pet-life. Ok?"

I nod quickly, and force myself not to say anything more, but a question slips out before I can reign it in.

"Whose were they?"  
"My step-brothers,"

"You have a step-brother!"  
Kai rolls his eyes in the most dramatic way I've seen him do it and gives me a full-on glare, "Quiet Max,"  
"I didn't know though!"  
"Well now you do,"  
I suppose I should have guessed. If Kai's Dad remarried, there was a good chance he married someone with kids.

"Do you have just step-brother, or a half brother too?"

What is it with me today? I think it's the nerves about Tala. They're making me suicidal.

Kai tenses and little and his eyes narrow dangerously. His eyes start to bubble with the sort of anger he gets when Tyson's in the room.

"Ok. You have a half sibling then?"  
Please stop talking Max. Your brain wants you to stop, stop letting that rebel mouth of yours get the better of you!

"Yes,"  
"A boy or a girl?"

"One of each. They're twins,"

I nearly say: aw, but that would be the equivalent of calling Kai a sissy and prodding him when he's asleep. He's glaring so fiercely now it's nearly hit the top end of his scale.

"And if you dare repeat that to anybody they'll be feeding you through a tube like they did to Tala,"  
Eek. Maybe I shouldn't rile Kai up on a night like this. I mull over the idea of Kai having siblings, however half and step they may be. It's odd. I wonder if he gets along with them. If Kai's dad is going to start making appearances at the flat, ad I get a bit more involved with Kai's personal life, then I might find out. But right now, the mitigating circumstances do not comply with pushing Kai.  
I start to drift off, lulled by the monotone of the newsreader and Kai's breathing. Despite the fact that I still don't know why Kai won't cooperate with the police and Tala has disappeared.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Next chapter:

I'm ready, dressed fully in black, ready for the car to show up…I look over at Kai and his face is tight and pained and pale…I wish all of this had never happened….

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

AS: please review! And go on, take a guess as to what might have happened…


	11. Chapter 11 Part 1

Hi! Sorry about this, but that 'next chapter' bit on the end of the last chapter was _meant_ to come into this one. But, unfortunately, there was a change in my heart and now it will appear in the next chapter. This one is exceedingly long so I split it into two, so technically that last bit _does_ come into this chapter…if that makes sense.

And by the way, ray-tiger-cat, I guess you made the best guess! Hope I'm not disappointing anyone.

Enjoy!

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSs

Kai is in a state of complete shock. Unfortunately, we still don't know what's happened to Tala, so the reason Kai is in shock isn't because we've found anything out. He's in a state of shock and slowly verging on going into actual body-shock, because both the coffee machines are broken.

"You should have planned ahead and bought a third one," I say. Kai glares at me quickly over the table top. He's not admitted to be suffering withdrawal symptoms from caffeine, but I know that he is. I sigh, and press redial to call Tala's cell for the fiftieth time that morning. No answer. It rings and rings for minutes then I'm told that the person I am calling is not available. I wait a second, then stab down the number 1 button again.

Kai's brought in the smell of a really warm summer morning, with all the leafs fainting off the trees in the breeze and the air thin and comforting. He's been outside walking around, trying to find Tala, brooding down the streets of Brooklyn and through the parks. No success though. The police are just as triumphant in their searches. No-body has seen or heard anything. No-one in our apartment block heard or saw Tala leave the building, and Mrs Meeks, who lives directly opposite the elevator, says that she didn't think she heard the elevator at the time of Tala's disappearance. She must always notice the elevator, because our building's builders must have given up making it slick and polished. It cranks and creaks and groans up the stairs, then pings open with such a loud noise it's like a bullet going off.

They searched the hospitals and the parks and under the bridges and found nothing. If Tala's gone because he doesn't want to be found, then I guess he isn't going to be found. If, on the other hand (and this is something I'm still trying not to consider) he's gone because he was taken against his will, then whoever has him isn't going to let him be found either.

"I'm going to have a shower," Kai sighs, leaving the kitchen. Poor Kai. All caffeine free. I would laugh but I'm just not in the mood. I'm not in the mood for much, really. I fell out of bed at six o' clock this morning, after waking up at four and not being able to get back to the sleep. I had a shower, and I've been sat at the kitchen table with my finger on the redial button since then.

I give a long, loud groan and kick the table leg. Where the _hell_ is Tala! I hate this. I want to know if he's Ok. Soon, I'm going to be wishing they find anything, even if it is a body.

…

Ugh, I can't think like that! Like I said before: Tala is capable of keeping himself safe. I'm sure he's fine. Even if he is kidnapped, that's one step up from being dead.

Kai's fuming at the police. I've been thinking about it for a while now, and I think that he is actually angry about Tala's case beign fast-tracked. Why, I don't know, because it could help us find Tala. I didn't know Kai's pride extended _that_ far. But it obviously does. Why he doesn't want help from the professionals beats me. I'm ignoring that issue though. I want Tala back before I concentrate on getting angry at Kai.

I'm about to re-dial again when the phone actually I rings. I pick up so quickly I nearly break the phone.

"Hello!"  
"Max, it's Rei,"

"Oh. Hi Rei,"  
"Sorry. Did you think it'd be Tala?"  
"I was sort of hopeful,"

"Sorry Maxy. I'm guessing you haven't found him then?"  
"No,"  
"So you think he took his mobile with them?"  
"I thought that he'd picked it up when he went, which is a good sign because even though we don't know why, it could have meant he left on his own accord. But then I remembered he brought it along with him when we went to the airport, just in case we needed it. Not that he uses it often. Don't mean to sound mean but it's not like he's not a hive of friends making his phone buzz. Not that I have or anything,"

Rei was silent for a minute, "God, Max, you sound practically depressed,"  
"I just want to know where he is,"  
"Yeah. I know. Everyone does. Even the White Tigers keep asking me repeatedly if I've heard from you,"

"Really?"  
"I think they settled most of their differences some time ago, although Lee says he's not really going to ever forgive Bryan for tearing me up,"  
"No, I guess not,"

"You also sound _really_ tired Max. Did you not sleep?"  
"I did, until about four this morning when I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep,"

"It'll be alright Max,"

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

I never realised this park was so big. I'm wandering around the park closest to our apartment, searching for the infamous red head whose causing more trouble than ever before without even being present. Kai's still in the shower. I went and knocked on the door before I left, just to tell him I was going out and to make sure he hadn't drowned himself in there.

"Excuse me,"

I stop, thinking someone wants to get past me, which confuses me because the paved path around the park is really wide.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?"  
I turn completely, and I'm met with a man in typical Brooklyn wear, beaming scarily at me.

"Um…who are you?"

He pauses, thinking, "Well, I'm Justin Bradwell from the sports section of The Times. I was just wondering…what's _your_ view on what's happened to Tala? Do you think he wandered off in a dazed confused, ran away to meet up with his separated team mates, or has been kidnapped?"  
"Um, I-"  
"If there is kidnapping involved who do you think it might be? Boris? Voltaire?"

I could imagine the story being concocted in his head. A personal life-crisis story that involves as much drama as a soap opera: 'Tala kidnapped by best friend and team-mate's psychotic Grandfather. Will Tala ever forgive Kai for the pain once again caused by his Grandfather Voltaire Hiwatari?'

"I don't know. I've got to go,"

I'm used to be harassed by the press, so I know that you should just ignore them. But when they're chasing you around a park in public view, the thing to do is run like hell in the opposite direction. Which was how I found myself running round and round the park being watched by toddlers in the sand pit, kids on the swings, and old people feeding the ducks. Why me?

AH!

Oh, _ow_. My head hurts. Why? What did I hit it on? Why am I on the floor?

"You crazy kid, what do you think you're doing you little-"  
Oh, wow, everything's gone purple….

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

There are lots of things I like to wake up to. What I saw when I woke up was not included in that long list. Kai's glaring at me with his arms crossed, phased into the background by a strange doctor with big, big glasses and no teeth bar one peggy one that I swear was green.

"Uh-ah!"

"He's awake,"

I turn my head slowly, the throbbing and pounding moved up a notch by the movement. Mr Dickenson is fretting in the corner of the room, turning his hat around and around in his hands.

"Ow,"  
"Do you think he'll be alright, doctor?"  
"Like the boy said," the doctor said in a German accent, starting to resemble someone not unlike a mad scientist, "He didn't hit it hard enough for any serious damage, apart from maybe a migraine and some sickness. But it should all pass within twelve hours. If he has any lucid moments, just take him to Casualty,"  
"Thank you Doctor,"

"My pleasure,"

He starts cleaning his glasses and I groan and turn away as the lenses catch the sunlight and glare down at me.

"Ow," I whimper, trying to a) get attention and b) mentally gage if I've ever felt pain like this in my head before. Barring that time I fell down the stairs in the Granger house and knocked myself out on the hall table…and the time I fell off the sofa onto a concrete floor at my Nana's house head first…I think I can still remember the pain from that fateful day when I fell down the steps coming off the aeroplane onto the tarmac when we were going to France for my first world championships as well.

So, to be honest, I have felt a lot of head pain like this. My Mum always used to say that I was top heavy, and if I was going to fall I was definitely going to bump my head. I made friends with a lot of the nurses at casualty where I used to live: 'Ooh, you got another bump on the head have you Max?'

Sometimes, when I had a light bruise and my parents just wanted to make sure I wasn't concussed, it was fun. But when the nurses said stuff like that when I was being wheeled along the corridor with a bandage wrapped tightly around my skull to keep blood in, it wasn't much fun at all.

I must have been an odd child to bring up. When my parents first began fighting with each other when I was seven, I used to have an obsession with drinking things I shouldn't. Once I nabbed a beer can of my Dad's and, not knowing what it was, drank most of it before it was whipped from my hand. I threw it all up so I was alright. Then I drank an entire bottle of Calpol(1), when I was with relatives in England. It tasted nice and sugary, and obviously I currently enjoyed drinking things I shouldn't, so I drank the whole lot and had to have my stomach pumped. My Japanese cousins (not being derogatory to Japanese people in general or anything, but the Japanese side of my family was always the mad side) always rumour that my aunty came into the kitchen to see me about to swallow a bottle of bleach, which she quickly snatched from my hand. Now that could be truth, or it could be my aunty trying to be a hero after that time she left the iron on, nearly set the house on fire, and ran screaming to her neighbour's to go and get the cat out, which in the end turned out to be sat on the kitchen windowsill completely unaware of the danger.

Then again, that's my family for you.

Maybe I am concussed. I am internally rambling, for instance. Ooh…is that a bandage on my head.

"Don't touch it,"

I forgot Kai was there.

"What happened?"  
"No-body really knows. But I thought I'd walk around the parks like you were doing and saw a crowd of people wondering whether the idiotic blonde boy on the floor was alright,"

I try and glare at him but it doesn't quite work that way.

"What did you do?"

"I brought you back here. If I took you to the hospital it'd be hours and I knew you hadn't done any serious damage,"  
"Thanks Kai! What if I was internally haemorrhaging!"  
"Don't be so dramatic,"  
"Don't be so derogatory of my injuries! Anyway, how did I do it?"  
"The man who owned the ice cream stand said you were running, you slipped, fell over, and hit your head on the wooden leg of his ice cream stand,"

"Oh. Now I remember. I was being chased,"  
"Chased by who?"  
"A crazy reporter. I swear his eyes went red,"  
"Ok Max," he sighs, "Just go back to sleep. You need to rest,"

"No, I'm not tired. Did you happen to find Tala whilst embarrassing yourself bringing me home?"  
"No,"  
Once again Kai instils confidence into my heart.

"Kai…I really want him back now,"  
"I know,"

I want to say: you do too, don't you? But even though I'm know I'm just trying to get Kai to just open up, I can't deny that I know the answer is: yes. He does want Tala back, and I know he does because he's tense and agitated and he's breaking plates. Well, one plate, but the Mighty Hiwatari broke a plate nonetheless. I don't think the lack of caffeine is doing him any good either. His body looks just as tight and tense as he is, and he looks as if he's got a headache. In my opinion, he shouldn't drink so much of the damn stuff anyway, but I would never dare say that. I think I got on his nerves enough last night about forcing information about his home-life from him.

"Have you heard anything more from your Dad? Or his lawyer?"  
"I got a letter saying if I don't appear in court in two days I'm breaking the law,"  
"Is that true?"  
"No,"  
"Is he allowed to do that?"  
"No,"

Oh. I'm glad Kai has an answer to everything. I'd hate to be his teacher. Come to think of it, I've done barely any work for the past week. I could make these next three weeks my summer holidays, but…I really should have done some. I'll just tell them I had a head injury and my friend disappeared. That should be a good enough reason.  
"Kai, have you done any work lately?"  
"No. I haven't sent anything in, in two weeks,"

"Yeah. Same. Oh well. I have a head injury,"

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

I lie around all day, trying my best to get out of bed but finding myself too dizzy and in pain to do so. I eventually get up at about six o' clock, and stagger downstairs to watch some tele with Kai. Kai's on the phone when I get downstairs, and it must have been the state I was in stopping me from beign observant, because I didn't see the look on his face until he hung up.  
"Who was that? Tala?"  
"No. It was the police,"  
"They've found Tala?"

My heart began to hammer so fast my whole chest cavity began to shudder. My stomach clutched to the size of a kiwi and I broke out into a cold sweat.

"No. They found Boris,"  
"Boris? What's Boris got to do with anything, I thought he was exiled from the country to Kazakhstan or something,"

"Obviously not. They found him in the middle of the alleyway. He was dead. Someone had shot him,"

I had to put my head between my legs when I heard that. And now, I still can't believe what I'm being told, even though it's the officer who found him standing right in front of me, relaying all of the information.

"We believe that there might be some connection between the death of Boris Chekov, and the disappearance of Tala Ivanov,"  
"You don't think Tala's dead too, do you?"

The officer gave his partner a glance, "To be perfectly honest, this looks good news for your friend. If Boris was the main man of the operation, then he's gone. Your friend, if captured by Boris, could be a lot safer now. There are other issues to be contended with though…and we can't vouch for sure on your friend's health,"  
"Oh. Ok,"

"I know this is tough for you and Kai, Max. But you just need to hang on,"  
I would if I could, but after nearly fainting like a girl this morning whilst I was being told of Boris' prone, dead form being found in an alleyway, I really don't think I can.

Kai, of course, is no-where to be. The police rile him up…badly. He decided to go out looking for Tala again, and that's where he is.

"Can I just ask…what happened to your head?"

I put my hand up to my hairline and ghost my fingers over the huge bruising I've got there.

"Oh. I was running. I fell and hit my head,"  
"Ouch. Has a doctor seen it?"  
"Yes,"  
"Good,"  
They cleared off after half an hour, saying that they'll keep us posted. Autopsy report and such. Fun. I pick up the phone and dial Tala's cell. It rings. And rings.

"Tala," I say over the ringing, "I really want you to pick up. Pick up the phone and come home. I really want you to pick up the phone because if you don't I'm going to throw it at the wa-"

Silence. Echoing silence. Somebody picked up.

"Tala? Tala! Tala are you there?"

Nothing. There's a low, continuous drone in the background. Talking. 'Stock exchange,' I heard. But it sounded faded and far away.

"Tala! Tala! Tal-"

I was interrupted by a loud beep as the connection was cut. I cut my end of the line too and sat down heavily on a kitchen chair. Should I call Kai, or wait until he gets home? I couldn't bare it though. I wanted to tell him now. I ring Tala's phone again and again, but no response. My thumb aces from pressing down the '1' button repeatedly. I was trying to guess who was talking, and figured it must have been a television. So now all we have to do is search all of the houses in the area with a TV…which isn't going to work, is it?

The minute Kai comes through the door I accost him and tell him everything.

"Have you informed the police?"  
"Um, no. It only just happened really. I'll do that now. Don't suppose you had any luck?"

Kai shook his head, and retreated upstairs. The investigators, when I finally get through to them, didn't seem to make such a big deal out of what I was saying. I eventually said, tersely, that I had to go, and put the phone down.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Nothing's happened. Nothing's changed. No Tala. No leads. Kai's even more tense and angry than he was. There's an intense energy itching away under his skin, and even though he's completely still as he stands and waits for me to drag my coat on, you can see the restlessness in his eyes and the fringes of his body.

He's got his coat on already, eyes turned towards the door and staring straight through it as if he could see the area we were about to search.

"Ok then, lets go,"

I stuck the note to the outside of the door like I always did, just in case Tala came back. We made our way downstairs, and were soon outside in the evening air. We walked in silence, just like we always did. Kai's eyes looked straight ahead, whilst I looked around carefully to make sure I didn't miss anything or anyone. Not that I think Kai was missing people. Kai's technique was probably more effective than mine, and would stop him from tripping over anything that got in his direct path.

We rounded the corner and hit a busy shopping street. The shops' lights seemed brighter, staff wandering around the store and chatting amiably as the shopping hours wound down. The City was slowly cooling, allowing the wash of night to flood over it, and for the population to change Brooklyn into it's night-life stage.

"You head down there," Kai said, turning to the right, "I'll walk around,"  
"Oh. Ok,"  
I'm guessing he wants us to cover more ground. Unless he doesn't like walking with me. I wouldn't be surprised. How insecure do I sound?

I mooch off past the shops, dwindling at the windows and wandering if I wanted to ask anyone if they'd seen Tala. I doubted any of them head, to be truthful.

I reached the end of the street when my phone suddenly rang shrilly in my pocket. Quivering from the shock, I pulled it out and answered quickly.

"Hello?"  
"Max? This is Geoff Bailey,"  
"Oh. Hello,"  
"I have some news about what happened to Boris. I'd like to have a word with you about his…ties to Tala,"  
"Um, Ok. Wait a minute,"  
I turned down the closest alleyway so that I could listen in piece. I leant against the wall just a few paces down from an empty metal bin.

"Ok then,"

"Where are you?"  
"I'm outside,"  
Why are you ringing me on my cell to ask me questions? I'm sure you're supposed to do this face to face.

"Right. Anyway, could you just explain what you know to be the relationship between Mr Valkov and Tala,"

"Well…Boris was Tala's mentor. He trained him in the Abbey up until the world championships three years ago,"  
"What happened to Tala and his team after that?"  
"I…I don't really know. I suppose you'd have to talk to Kai,"  
I think the guy would just onto a moving bus to try and get away from talking to Kai, as he went very quiet for a minute and it sounded like he was chewing his pen lid.

"Alright then. What happened after that?"  
"We had the second world championships. I…I don't know where the Blitzkrieg Boys were then either. As I said, Kai would probably know,"  
"Hm,"

Sounded like the prospect of talking to Kai was starting to sound even worse to him.  
"And…well, the Blitzkrieg boys were at the next big tournament. With BEGA and everything. But Boris…I thought Boris was exiled to Kazakhstan after what he did three years ago. What was he doing in America?"

The guy coughed nervously and said, "I'm afraid I don't have the answer. Do you think Boris got on with Tala?"  
"I…I don't know. Tala never mentions Boris. I don't think…well, I wouldn't look at Boris after all the things he did with Tala,"  
"Hm, yes, I read up on that,"  
"Why are you asking me all these questions anyway?"

There was a short, stagnant pause that made my stomach roll over, "Max, Tala is no-where to be found, but we have reason to believe he was there at Boris' death. Whether he actively partook or not…Tala's part of a murder investigation now,"

I went and sat on the lid of the trash can.

"Seriously?"  
"Yes,"  
"Why! Tala doesn't kill people,"

"Like you said, you would never forgive Boris if he did things like he did to Tala to you. Tala could just have easily taken any anger and snapped. We don't even know half of the things Boris could have got away doing to Tala,"  
"Tala doesn't 'snap', Ok? And he's not a murderer. You really think Tala would want to ever go near Boris again, after all that?"

"Max, I'm sorry, but he is part of the investigation, and we are counting him as a suspect-"  
"Despite the fact that he's disappeared off the face of the earth!"

He gave a short, brutal sigh, "Max, I'm sorry to disturb you. Goodnight,"

He hung up, and I would have thrown my cell into the trash can if I didn't actually value having it. How dare he say that! Tala doesn't murder people. Tala doesn't 'fly off the handle' or 'snap'. Tala gets angry, and he gets emotional, but he doesn't shoot someone in the head. Not even Boris. Although, come to think of it - and I need to remember never to repeat this in front of the investigators - if I was Tala I would shoot Boris. I'd want him to pay. But…Boris isn't going to pay like the way Tala's going to suffer if he dies. Tala's going to go on hurting after all of that, and Boris is just going to get the easy way out. Tala's got enough logic to know that.

I head on up the alley, scrunching my fist around my cell again and again. I'm so confused now. They must have some evidence to think that Tala had been on that alleyway. Did he really kill Boris? No…no he couldn't have done. He…no, he couldn't have.

I break out of the alley and look left and right, figuring the best way to get back up to where I was supposed to be meet Kai. Right, up the hill, I decide, even though I can see someone tryign to navigate the back of a lorry down the road and causing a mess.  
I start to head off, but I'm grabbed violently by the crook of my elbow and dragged back into the alley.

"Let go!"  
"Max,"  
"Kai!"

Kai still has his hand fixed on my arm, holding tight to my elbow and not softening his grip. Ow. His hair's ruffled, it's obvious he's been running.

"Kai, what are you-?"

I stop silent when I see someone very familiar stood behind Kai.

"_Bryan_!"  
Bryan's not looking at me, he's staring down the alleyway. Like he's smelling the air or something. Tracking. What are Kai and Bryan running after?

I haven't seen Bryan in a while, and to be honest I have very little idea as to where he's been. But I can tell he hasn't been in America for a while. His jacket is short, cutting just above his hips, and hiding a pale t-shirt whose colour is indeterminate in the dim light of the back alley. His hair is longer than when I last saw him, and it hands a little into his scarily fixed eyes.

"Come on," Kai says, breaking me out of my reverie.

"Whoa, Kai, where are we going?"  
I grind my heels in until I'm not being pulled along anymore.

"Wait! What's going on?"  
Bryan rolls his eyes but doesn't turn right around to face me.

"What is Bryan doing here? What's happening?"  
Kai folds his arms across his chest and looks the way that Bryan is. I get the image of a pack of wolves and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up in a salute. There's a million other things I want to ask, like did Bryan know what was going on, and if he knew Boris was dead, and if I'd left the tap running in the bathroom, and where has Bryan been?

"Bryan's here because he's here. And we've found Tala,"  
No you haven't. Because he's not at home. That's when I'd feel he's been completely found.

"So we're going. Now. And if you want to come along you come now,"

Fine. They don't run anymore but they walk with purpose as I trot along behind. I have a feeling that where they think Tala is, is close by. We arrive back on the shopping strip and it looks a lot less innocent than it did about ten minutes before. We follow the pedestrian street for a few feet before turning down the gap between two buildings with hair salons pushed into their front rooms. There's a door in the wall, and Bryan snaps back the lock that's faded and rusty. Instead of it leading into the interior of a home or the building, it opens a tiny space that leads along the length of the left hand building. I realise it must a back-to-back, but with a small separation. It's wide enough for us to walk down it but the ceiling is incredibly closed to the top of our heads and I feel claustrophobic the entire way down it. I try to ask a question but my voice doesn't come out right. Light casts odd angles down towards us, and soon I'm stood on my own at the mouth of the small tube of space, staring into a walled courtyard that's completely empty by a few empty trash cans, a rug, and two people.

The first time I take real notice of is Tala. I haven't seen Tala in days. And now that I see him I don't know what to do. He's crouched in a corner, resting against the back wall of the courtyard. And he's fast asleep. His head is resting on his arms that are resting on top of his knees, and his face is a mask of passive calm. His hair ripples gently as the night wind sets in, and those infamous strands of hair fall down over his closed eyes. There's some mud streaked on his face, and he's wearing different clothes, but he looks no different to how he did when he disappeared.

Now I _really_ don't know what to say. I just want to get Tala out of here. But I don't move. Kai and Bryan have made their presence know. Bryan's looking as confrontational as a human can get, eyes smouldering and back straight and tensed up. And he's directed all of this unbridled anger at the guy lounging languidly on top of an empty bin.

"Oh look," he smirks, "It's the musketeers,"

He's tall and, from what I can tell, skinnier than an entirely healthy person should be. His eyes are bright and big, a shining petrol blue. His hair's black and hanging low over his face, sweeping down the back of his neck in jagged bangs. He casts an eye over to Tala, then to Bryan, and slowly to Kai. Kai's less upfront. He's still facing the way he was when he stepped out of the alley, keeping Tala in his peripheral vision. Right now, he's got his eyes pretty much fixed on the stranger. Stranger to me anyway. They obviously know each other.

"Hello Kai. Hello Bryan. How are my little protégés?" he talks like the rest of them. Smooth and dark and heavy, knowing exactly what he means and wants, and not letting any pretences be built up. Bryan talks in a quick stream of Russian. The only words I get are: 'Hiwatari', and 'bastard'. I'm guessing he wasn't calling Kai a bastard. But you never know. The guy on the bin laughs a little, and replies in English, much to my relief.

"Do you really have such a low opinion of me? I came to see what was going on. You _know_ where I've been Bryan,"

This time, Kai does move. His head turns to look directly at Bryan. Bryan truly has his hackles raised now. Once again he speaks in Russian. But then I find myself joined in.

"Whose the blonde one? Isn't that the squirt from the Bladebreakers?"

Bryan looks over Kai's shoulder at me, as if I'd only just arrived, avoiding Kai's unfazed glare.

"What's he here for?"

I thought Kai might say something about that. I didn't exactly _want_ to be here, but I suppose have as much right as they do to be here. I want to know Tala's safe. And for some reason I don't really feel he is.

"No reason," Kai says, not looking at him. The pause is heavy and gives me a headache.

Bryan sneers at Kai, finally getting tired of the look he was giving him, "What?"

"How did you know where he was?" Kai asks coolly. I'm glad he asked that. Because I am completely lost. Who is this again? And why aren't we taking Tala home?

"What? Who?"  
"Paulo," Kai says, as if the subject in question wasn't present. Bryan pulls his chin up and scoffs.

"I met him. A few weeks ago. Anything else you want to get suspicious about?"  
"You could have told us,"  
"I know,"

I always knew that Kai's relationships with anyone outside the Bladebreaker's were unhealthy.

"What happened?" Kai eventually asked this Paulo guy. When Kai talks in _that_ voice, there's not much room to move. You have to answer. And you have to answer truthfully.

"I heard what was kicking off. I thought I'd come back and see if you lot had really been split up. By the time I got here, there was something completely different going on. Boris stood in the middle of an alleyway pointing a gun to his head. What exactly are you angry at me for again?"  
Kai sneers exactly like Bryan did a minute or two ago, "That's got nothing to do with this. Did you think of telling us what was going on?"  
"Hey, I had to get away from the police. They're bloody suspicious in this country. I didn't hang around, I can tell you. I brought a flat,"  
"You took Tala with you?"  
"You think I'd leave him all alone in an alleyway with a body? Boris' body. I took him back to my flat. Let him cool down. Not that that's happened,"

I'm sat next to Tala, just as Kai instructed me too. I'm shielded by another empty trash can, but I can hear everything that is going. What I've ascertained so far has big holes on it. But what I've got is that Tala met with Boris. The three of them arguing just a few feet away don't know why, but Boris was lurking and Tala took it on his head to go and see him. Whatever happened at that meeting hadn't been good. Both Tala and Boris had issues to work out and I don't think that they were worked out. What happened after that isn't known, but not long after that the guy Paulo walked in on an argument between Boris and Tala. That was the moment in time Boris decided to blow his brains all over the alley wall. Not wanting Tala to be left alone, he took him back to his flat. Then…well I don't know what happened then.

And all I know about Paolo is...well, I don't know anything. I don't think he has as much to do with though, from my point of you. The important thing for me is that something happened when Boris and Tala met up. Something that must have made Boris want to shoot himself, and Tala to have to take a few days to calm down from.

I wait and wait, and eventually get bored. I watch Tala, trying to ascertain if he's alright or not. His breathing his heavy and deep, and he sounds and looks fast asleep. But when he wakes up, he looks a lot less peaceful than he did when he was asleep.

…..

Part 2 coming up! Tell me what you think. musing Tala's going to be a wreck in the next chapter...

(1) Calpol - two things. I don't know if they have Calpol in America, which is why I said he was with English relatives. Maybe they do though. Anyway, this is also a reference, and I suppose a dedication, to my friend The Infamous Robyn. Supposedly she did the same thing as a small child, after being attracted by the taste and smell of Calpol, and the opportunity of having the child-protected cap loosely secured.


	12. Chapter 11 Part 2

Hey guys. WOOOO it's good to be back in the Its All In the Smile Universe!! I've missed it, seriously.

First of all, a HUGE apology to everyone who was waiting for this chapter to go up. I _did _have this all written up and ready to go but then some electricians came a knocking and in the process of fixing something in the house they moved my computer and - it being old and temperamental – it went kaput. I've written and rewritten this a thousand times, cos I've wanted to get it right and all those drafts just doesn't feel right.

Btw, there's lots of ANGST ANGST ANGST ANGST - oh yeah and a bit of sappiness - in this chapter!! One count of swearing and one bits a bit gruesome I guess.

So, anyway, this is it. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and pushed me to get this up!

Hope not to disappoint!

* * *

O…K. The tension in this situation is killing me. Someone is going to have to say something. _Anything_. Before I start to froth at the mouth. The three of them are stood in a triangle of stiffened backs, venom etched throughout Bryan and Kai, and a strange smugness settling over Paolo. 

"Kai," Tala murmurs, in a voice very unlike his own.

He's been awake for the last ten minutes, which explains why I'm crouched in this corner; watching over him in my own timid, cowering way. He's been silent for all that time, staring straight ahead, looking lost in his own head. Now his eyes have flickered, moving over to look at the three facing each other off. The light has nearly all seeped away as the sun keeps on lowering, and it's getting hard to make smaller details out. If I hadn't been concentrating I wouldn't have seen the flicker of a strange emotion on Kai's face as he turns to Tala.

"Tala," he says, almost on reflex. Bryan looks over his shoulder at his team mate. I'm not surprised when I can't read his expression, as Bryan Kutsenov was and always will be, a complete mystery to me.

Kai gives Tala small nod, imperceptivity telling him something. Tala blinks. I think there's something to be said about this silent communication dealie; I have no idea what they're thinking about.

Like something out of those Animal Planet shows where packs of wolves move together with unnerving synchronisation, Bryan shot forward - choking any chance of Paolo bolting - and Kai moved over to Tala. He took Tala's wrist and pulled him up without warning. Tala was eerily quiet and composed, looking like he'd just woken from a deep sleep and was planning to go with the flow until it all became clear what he was meant to do. Except there was a horrible vacancy to his eyes I hadn't seen before.

Kai stalked away to the alley opening, giving me a 'come on' look that I daren't ignore.

Outside the courtyard, the three of us are silent. We head out onto the main shopping street and I suddenly realise I haven't breathed for the past few minutes. Probably ever since I said: Tala, because that one word was only uttered thanks to a massive force of confidence. As we reach the top of the street, Tala suddenly stops. We're broken from our reverie. I don't realise why Tala's stopped until I look up from where I'm inspecting the toes of my shoes.

"Evening boys," says Detective Geoff Bailey, frowning, "And evening Tala. We were just about to start putting up missing persons posters,"

Tala's stare is blank, Kai's bordering on the coolly murderous, and I'm just tired. I really, really want to go to bed. As Bailey makes a phone call, though, an unfortunate nervous reflex of mine kicks in. I start to giggle.

Good lord I _giggled_, in front of Kai Hiwatari, Tala Ivanov, and Detective Geoff Bailey. I feel two pairs of eyes on me. I know one is Bailey's, and I'm guessing the other is Kai's, as Tala's head is lilting downwards to one side a little.

Oh God I'm giggling and nothing is funny. I am giggling like a maniac and yet I'm worried about Tala dropping unconscious at any minute. I can't stop, I can't stop…argh Max stop giggling!

I'm at the point where I have so many tears in my eyes I can barely see Bailey's face as he stares deadpan at me. Oh no I think they're going to turn into proper tears in a moment…

"If you don't mind I want to take him home," Kai says, briskly. I assume they're talking about Tala and not me, although I bet Kai wants to take me home too. So he can drown me in the bath tub.

Even chief detectives like Bailey don't say no to _that_ voice.

"Fine," he grunts with a nod, without taking his eyes off me. He flips away his cell phone, "You don't think he needs a hospital?" he enquires, after giving Tala a look.

"He's fine," Kai says coldly, brushing past him and pulling Tala along. I get my wrist grabbed painfully – ow – and yanked after him.

We get to the apartment block and even to the foyer before Tala gives in and passes out. Thankfully Kai is paying attention and catches him neatly.

"Get the elevator," he orders and I lunge for the button. He lifts Tala up bridal-style when the doors part and inside the lift he doesn't let Tala down.

"You could have picked a better time for your emotionally retarded outburst," he flatly states.

I sniffle into my sleeves, my tears real ones now. Ew I need a tissue. Then a noose and gallows.

"Sorry," I mumble, "I'm just…tired. And I'm glad Tala's back," I attempt.

Kai doesn't say anything to that and I'm not surprised; seeing as I'm covered in snot and tears.

The doors slide open at the appropriate floor and I eventually get myself to function properly enough so that I can open the apartment door for Kai.

Oh whoop-de-bloody-do; Bryan's here. As Kai lays Tala out on the sofa, Brian's stood in the corner with his arms folded, watching like a hawk. Or, you know, a falcon. If I'm emotionally retarded then he's emotionally stunted. But I'd never dare tell him that.

You know those guys who want to pick a fight all the time, those strange ones you meet at intervals in your lifetime? Usually with no hair and tattoos on their knuckles; the ones who would get into a boxing match with a didgeridoo if drunk enough? Well I've seen quite a few, having lived in Brooklyn for years, and they can put this look into eye that says: come on if you think you're hard enough.

That look?

Well, Bryan has that look in his eye _constantly_. And I have to be perfectly honest, I am not hard enough. I doubt even an incendiary bomb or the entire Russian army is either. That's why I don't talk to Bryan, that's why I've always avoided him at tournaments, that's why I've made sure I'd never have to talk to him on the phone.

And yet here he is. A foot away. In my living room.

Giving me the evils.

I think I might pass out.

Bryan's 'evils' are like death itself.

"Hi Bryan," I say, weakly. He just scoffs. He's such a polite young man. I go to the kitchen and splash water over my face to help recover myself from the shock of it all.

Ugh, I need a change in lifestyle. Maybe if I went and lived at Tyson's?...could I bear the stress of Grandpa 24/7? The answers no, but I could try. Kai and Tala would never forgive me though, if I left them in the lurch like that. I'm the only one who brings in any money.

Oh. There's mail. I scale the hallway and pick it up from the mat. It's addressed to B. Kutsenov. I straighten up and there's an overwhelming icy shadow over my back. Kai.

I hold up the envelope.

"Do you think that's B for Bryan or B for Belligerent Nutcase?"

"Careful," he snatches the envelope off me and takes it into the living room.

"Is he OK? I ask as I throw myself into the corner farthest away from Bryan.

"He will be," I nod mutely. The combination of an icy Kai and a…well, Bryan, is making me more than a little nervous. But I'm more concerned about Tala. I go upstairs on Kai's instruction and get those bottles of pills of Tala's – hidden under his bed (so that's where they hide them, sneaky devils) – for when he woke up. Bryan was reading his letter when I got back, a hint of murderous glee about him…more so than usual, I mean.

"Cocky bastard," Bryan spits, handing the letter to Kai. I realise then that there's blood on Bryan's knuckles. Paolo's? Probably. But I don't really want to know.

Why can't Kai have any normal friends outside of the Bladebreakers?

"Just ignore him," Kai grunts in response to the letter, casting it aside.  
"Whose it from?" I dare ask.

"Santa," Bryan snaps.

Fine then. Be like that. I'll just sit down on the floor and wait for somebody to answer my questions.

* * *

Did I fall asleep? I must have done. It's completely dark outside and I've obviously been here for some time; my legs are numb. I crawl on all fours for a few paces, groaning at the horrible feeling of my liquefied limbs. _Ow_. Why did no-one move me? I guess the fact I fell asleep in such an uncomfortable position is testimony to how exhausted I am. I peer upwards when I hear heavy breathing close to my ear, for some reason frightened of seeing a stranger hanging over my shoulder ready to knock me over the head. 

Instead I see Tala.

He's spread out across the cushions on his back, head turned to the side and one arm crooked at the elbow, his other hand lightly clutching the blanket over him. His hair is blood-red in the shadows; dark and wild around his pale, quiet face. His eyelids flicker a little, and I'm worried about waking him, but still I can't take my eyes off him.

How did Tala Ivanov ever get to look this damaged?

There's dark rings under his eyes and a row of scrapes just under his ear throbs red against his pale skin. His fingers are scratched and bruised, with crimson lines running under his nails. I guessed if I turned his hands over I'd see crescent-moon scars on the flat of his palms.

"Max,"

Ah! Kai. Why does he sneak up on me like that?

"Oh. Kai. What are you-…are you going to bed?"

He's holding a mug in his hand; I can see little arms of steam waving up from the surface.

"No,"

"Oh…How long was I out?"

"Three hours. You missed dinner,"

"You and Bryan made dinner?"

"Bryan fixed our grill. We had cheese on toast,"

That's an image I'll never be able to fully comprehend, nor ever get out of my head.

"He…_Bryan _fixed the grill?"

"Believe it or not he's good with wires and electrics. He can fix a TV if you give him enough time and space,"

Wow.

You learn something new – and oddly terrifying (the idea of Bryan being handed tools such as a screwdriver makes me shake all over) – every day.

"Has Tala woken up at all?" I ask, getting to my feet slowly and wincing at the stabbing pains all over.

"No,"

Kai drinks some of the coffee without taking his eyes off me, "You should go to bed,"

"Is he going to be Ok?" I say, ignoring him. I hobble around and around in circles to try and get my circulation back into my legs, but it's like walking on a layer of bean bags and I keep losing my balance.

Kai gets his own back by ignoring my question, but he turns his gaze to Tala and inspects him carefully.

"Where's Bryan?"

"I don't know," Kai snaps tersely. I get the feeling I've hit a nerve.

"Who's Paolo?"

"Old Captain of the Blitzkrieg Boys. Fell down a flight of stairs and snapped all the tendons in his wrist. Couldn't play any more so they kicked him out of the abbey. Any more questions?"

I shook my head.

"It's one in the morning and you should be in bed," he continues.

"I don't live with my parents any more, I don't have a bedtime!" I argue, stumbling my way around and around the room still, "I'll go to bed when I can feel all the muscles in my legs. Anyway, I've got to feed the turtle,"

As I'm busy tearing up pieces of lettuce for my still-to-be-Christened turtle, Kai starts say in a low, begrudging tone, "Don't ask Tala what happened, Max,"

"What? Why?"

I drop another piece of lettuce into the turtle's little pool, and he watches it limply float away from his reach.

"Because Tala doesn't have to talk about things to get over them. In fact it makes him worse. Leave him alone. He'll deal with it himself,"

I scrunch up a leaf of lettuce into my palm and drop it heavily into the water, "That's kind and sensitive as usual, Kai. For once I thought you were going to do something to help one of your friends. Like talk to Tala yourself. But I guess ignoring it all will work too,"

Too mean?

I don't care I'm too tired to think properly.

Kai's silent but I can tell his blood pressure just went up a notch. I think he's struggling to get used to the idea that, if I'm tired or hungry or upset enough, I just don't care if I annoy him.

I slam the lid down on the aquarium and No-Name-Turtle jumps.

"Are you going to go to bed now?" Kai asks, evenly.

"I'll go when I want, Kai. Stop pushing me around,"

I can tell any minute one of us is going to throw down the gauntlet. And after that Tala isn't going to stay peacefully asleep much longer. I don't know what's wrong with me tonight. I'm glad Tala's back but it's such an unsatisfactory feeling; I don't know what happened to him, I don't know if he's Ok, I don't know if he's going to Ok in the end, and I don't know what the hell Kai's problem is. Why can't I talk to him about it? Is he just going to let Tala bottle it all up and ignore it?

I guess so. Since it's what Kai does every time there's a problem.

"What are we going to do when he wakes up, then, if we're not allowed to talk to him about it?"

"Get the police to pack away and make sure Bryan gets out of the country without hurting someone,"

I've still got that image of Bryan handling wires and electrical circuits in our kitchen in my head, so I can't really cope with thinking about him terrifying some poor security guard as well.

"You've got the nicest friends," I say with a sigh under my breath, knowing full well that he'll be able to hear me.

"I'm going to bed," I eventually decide, turning towards him with my arms folded, "If Tala wakes up…nevermind, there's no point. You wouldn't do it anyway,"

I brush past him (I hope I'll be able to remember this momentums occasion tomorrow, as it's not often I effectively give Kai the cold shoulder) and make my way up stairs, turning the hall light off and plunging the entire bottom floor into darkness. As I walk up, minding where I put my feet so that I don't ruin my moment of poise and dignity but falling up the stairs, I look down and catch sight of Kai's face in the dim light. Weak moonlight – because you never get proper light in Brooklyn – shows up the exhaustion in his face. He watches me levelly, and even when I turn away I can feel him scoping me as I reach the top of the stairs.

I duck into the privacy of my room and let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding.

* * *

I woke up feeling and looking rough as hell. I groan, feeling joints pop and muscles stretch as I start to move around. I yawn, and throw a hand out to stretch. I jump a mile when it connects with something. 

"Ow,"

I jump a mile and lurch away, my eyes too blurry with exhaustion to focus on anything for a few seconds. When they eventually do, it's on Tala.

"Tala…Tala, what are you doing?"

Tala was stretched out on top of the covers at the edge of my bed, lying on his back and looking quite relaxed. It took me a minute or two though, to realize that he was crying. Not all-out bawling. There was no snot or hiccupping breath or wailing. Just a shine of tears in his eyes that were rimmed with angry red.

"I went into Kai's room, but he won't wake up."

"Do you mean like 'dead' not waking up or-"

"He's just sleeping really heavily."

"Oh. Good. Tala, are you Ok?"

"I'm fine."

I sit up a little, feeling incredibly lost. I don't even know where to _begin_…

"Well…you don't look it."

"I'm just tired."

"You must have slept twelve hours, Tala." I guess.

"I haven't slept for the past few days."

I start gnawing on my lip, wondering what people who were a lot better at comforting others would do in this situation.

"Why?"

"Paolo's flat was noisy."

"You stayed in Paolo's flat? That's where you were all this time? Tala…God do you _realise _how worried Kai and I were about you? The police were talking about coming rivers to look for your body! Why didn't you ring one of us or something?! You just walked out of the house without telling either of us where you were going or what you were going to do or-"

I suddenly stop in the middle of my rant because I realise too things: 1) Tala's squirmed away from me like I've slapped him and 2) I wasn't exactly helping him to stop crying.

"Don't cry," I say, lamely.

"I'm not crying," he scowls at me. He blinks his eyes and a tear drop rolls down the side of his cheek, landing carefully on the pillow below as if it knew it would splatter on impact. I raise an eyebrow. His scowl deepens, "I'm _not_ crying."

"Oh sure, 'course."

He gives me a glare and sits up quickly, rubbing the back of his hand over his eyes. Before I can stop him he's getting up and heading for the door.

"No wait, Tala, stop. Wait."

I grab the back of his t-shirt and pull him back.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…look Tala I know it's a really pathetic attempt, but I'm trying to…help you. I…sit down."

I pull on his shirt again and he sits down next to where I'm kneeling on the bed. He looks a little concerned, as if I'm going to try and hug him or something. No chance of that, I know what Tala's like about unnecessary physical contact if he's not in the mood. Someone at a market we once visited just outside of the city tried to accost Tala to buy something, and he all but killed the man. Although I admit he'd been in a _particularly_ bad mood at that moment in time (my fault, because I'd insisted they waited for me as I got a pancake at the stall and Tala had to stand around smelling lots of delicious food which he hates because he wasn't cooking any of it himself and he wouldn't let himself eat any of it).

"What happened, Tala?"

I ask, once I'd established by my own body language that I wasn't going to attack him with a hug or anything. I crossed my legs and sat a bit away from him, playing with the edge of a pillow.

"Nothing. I'm fine."

"Which is why you were…_not_ crying a minute ago?"

"I don't want your sympathy Max,"

"I never thought you did! I know what you and Kai are like, Tala. An ounce of pity sent your way and your hackles start to raise. I'm just…I'm just being a friend."

Although if I remember rightly Kai told me under no circumstances was I to try to talk to Tala about what happened….

Oh well.

"You were there when Boris died, weren't you?"

Tala's body goes all stiff. I get a brief glimpse of the semi-circles of red on palm that I'd expected before he grips his fists and they disappear.

"He didn't just 'die', he killed himself. Except that didn't work for a while."  
Oh God, should I be encouraging a discussion about gruesome deaths before having some breakfast?

"What do you mean?"

You could strike a match off Tala's skin. In fact I think if you touched him you'd get some sort of massive electrical shock from all the pent up energy he's holding in. He looks like he wants to start a rant – the kind of thing I would do – but Tala's not like that. Instead of letting everything out he spits out five words and then goes back to being very quiet.

"He missed the first time."

"_Missed_?"

It takes a long time for him to reply. Tala's voice doesn't betray what I can see flickering in his face and eyes, "He shot himself with the gun in his mouth. Except he didn't get is straight and it pretty much went out of his ear."

Any minute now I'm going to have to locate my bin because I probably won't make it to the bathroom in time if – "So he just stood there for a while yelling. Then he did it again. He must have got it right the second time."

After _a lot_ of forceful swallowing I ask, quietly. "Why did he do it Tala?"

"He was angry he'd lost everything. He blamed us. He thought we ratted him. He was angry he couldn't have us any more."

"What, all of you at the abbey?"

"Yes. But mostly the Blitzkrieg boys."

"Why?"

"We were his biggest accomplishment. Boris had favourites."

That made me feel more physically sick than the description of the bastard's death did. I break into the long silence that follows with my voice all thin: "I'm sorry Tala."

"It's not your fault."

"I know but…well, it's not your fault either. It wasn't your fault you had to deal with Boris. I'm sorry that you had to know him."

Tala moves his head around so quickly to look at me I nearly fall off the edge of the bed in shock. He looks at me like he's never seen me before. He doesn't say anything in response to my apology, so I babble on.

"Oh and I'm sorry about talking to you about this. Uh, you see, Kai kinda told me not to ask you what happened. He said it would probably make you worse."

"Yeah. It probably will. Sometime. Probably tonight. But for now I feel better."

"Oh…good?"

I really have no idea whether I've helped at all. All I know is that some of my questions have been answered and Tala is no longer crying – my two biggest.

"Yeah, good," he says with the slight trace of a smirk. However his eyes aren't particularly focusing on my face and are starting to drift, so I get up off the bed and ask all business-like: "Have you taken your medication this morning Tala?"

"Uh…no."

I usher him to the door, Tala looking surprised.

"Go on then, go downstairs and take them."

I follow him down the stairs and he slinks away into the kitchen. As I move into the living room I come face to face with Bryan's unsavoury glower and smirk combination.

"What?" I mumble, feeling too sensitive for any sort of critical comment.

"Are you ill or something?"

"It's first thing in the morning. I'm tired."

"It's two o' clock in the afternoon."

I glance at the timer on the television. "Don't you have a plane to catch or something?"

I ask, ducking beside my turtle's aquarium where I start busily feeding him lots of lettuce in an apology for not giving him his breakfast.

"My plane's at four," he looks over into the kitchen. We hear something drop from the cupboard and a 'damn' before there's the chink of glass and the tap is turned on, "What's Tala said?"

"Uh, not much," I say off-hand.

"Right."

I can tell he doesn't believe me. He's got a meaner-than-usual look in his eye like he wants to find out _just_ the extent of my lying. Maybe Kai warned him about physical violence in the house or something, because he doesn't grab me and start pulverising me.

"Is he OK?"

"Tala? Yeah, I think he's Ok."

He gives the kitten another glance, before he turns around and leaves.

I'm not sure whether he's gone for good or just for ten minutes or so. So I just listen to the door shutting behind him, clutching the bag of lettuce in my hands.

In the hallway I hear the creak of those old battered stairs crackle under Kai's slight weight. I'd hate to know what would happen to if over-weight person ever tried to scale those stairs.

I duck down beside the aquarium so I'm not spotted as he walks past the living room. I'm not sure why. Probably because I've just managed to not get pummelled by one Blitzkrieg boy and I'm determined to make that stick with the others.

The living room door to the kitchen is open though. I slide onto the armchair just in case Kai does walk in and sees my hiding and thinks I'm even _more_ of an idiot that I already am. I can still into the kitchen from here. Bright afternoon sun makes the light in there a hot, angry yellow, gleaming blindingly off the fridge door. Tala's storing away the bottle of pills as Kai draws up beside him. I shove the bag of lettuce at the foot of the armchair so I don't start eating it like I would do popcorn at the movies.

Kai says something in Russian I don't understand; something in a very low, quiet voice. Tala doesn't turn around, avoiding looking at Kai. Kai says Tala's name clearly. It's obvious that despite how deeply asleep he was he's still exhausted. Hollow eyes, rebellious hair, tiredness in his stance. Tala finally turns to look at him, but he isn't forthcoming with a conversation.

Kai once again utters something I don't understand, except this time when he speaks he moves his hand, takes hold of Tala's wrist, and holds it gently. He pulls lightly on it, and Tala moves forward like he's been dragged in to an orbit about Kai. In the same movement Tala rests his head against Kai's shoulder; red hair touching blue. Tala's shoulders aren't shaking but I guess this is like the version of the conversation we had together earlier. Neither of them move. Their bodies seem to fit together as two dark figures in the unbearable light in the kitchen.

I guess this is why Kai never talks to Tala about things, why Tala finds it easier not too.

Because Tala doesn't have to say anything. Kai already knows.

* * *

Sorry! Once again funeral bit won't be in this chapter, but in the next one. Just got too many ideas when writing this and I couldn't fit it in!! Wrote the whole of this to 'What Hurts the Most' by Rascal Flatts and 'Flying High' by Jem which is probably why this is sappy! Sorry! 

Really, really, _really_ hope you liked this guys. Review or I won't update again!!!!...I don't like that I sound too scary. Well…do it anyway!! Hehe.


	13. Chapter 12

It's All in the Smile Chapter 13

AS: I'm back! Sorry it's taken so long to get this up; usual stuff. One of them being a withering computer.

Anyway, enjoy.

**It's All in the Smile Chapter 13**

"Where'd you get that suit from?"

"I've always had it."

"I've _never_ seen you wear that suit."

"I wore it at the official ceremony at the World Championships. I wore it at the BBA Headquarters' 50th anniversary. I wore it when they opened that community Beyblade arena near Tyson's….I've worn it a lot Max."

I pout, "Sorry. I just couldn't remember that's all. Has _Tala_ ever worn a suit before?"

"Not that I know of."

I couldn't help it. I blurted out excitedly, "Cool, I wonder what he looks like."

Kai gives me a look with a hint of despair as he ties up his tie, "What are you doing in my room anyway Max?"

"You're the only one with a decent mirror."

Surprisingly, that was true. When we bought the apartment, not all of the furniture had been taken away. We threw out all the dubious bits, like the crusty old toaster and a air-bed pump, but kept the large wardrobe in the room that eventually became Kai's bedroom. It was too big to move and Kai didn't mind it taking up his space. It's not like he's fussy like that. On the inside of this wardrobe, however, was a big full length mirror. And I was currently preening in it, pretending I wasn't worried that my hair stuck out at the weirdest angles and I looked like I was going to my first school dance rather than a funeral.

Kai obviously didn't need a mirror. He was stood leaning against the doorframe doing up his tie, probably only there to watch me so as I don't go sneaking around at his stuff. Which is fair. If left alone in Kai's room, I probably _would_ sneak around. Not that I'm nosey like that I'm just….interested.

….

Oh come on, I've lived with Kai – not only in Brooklyn but during the tours too – for a remarkably long time and I have yet to sneak around his room. I'm allowed _one_ sneak peak at least.

"When's the car coming?"

Kai's used up all his conversation tokens and so doesn't answer me. I guess it's also because he's staring down the hallway at something and didn't hear me speak. I'm hoping it's Tala, and that Bryan hasn't returned.

Yep, it's Tala. He walks right past us without even noticing us in his peripheral vision. No wonder. He hasn't taken anything of his medication for a day and a half now.

"Are you going to _make_ him take them or am I going to have to?" I ask. Since Kai's looking pensively out into the hall I take the opportunity to sneak a look into the wardrobe.

…Ooh that's interesting.

"You think I haven't tried making him?" Kai says, making me jump away and quickly pretend to be straightening my collar. I went back to inspecting myself in the mirror, feeling a tight constriction in my chest.

It may have been the way I'd tied my tie. It may, however (and more likely), been the stress. It had been four nerve-wracking days. Four pain-staking days which involved a lot of phone calls and begging Mr Dickenson to please, please, please suck up to the police so that they don't ask too many questions and to please, please, please not make us go to the funeral.

That conversation went as follows:

"Please, please, please do not make us go to the funeral!"

"I'm sorry Max, but the BBA Boards are very insistent. They want to try and placate the Russian Beyblade Association. Some of them continued to associate themselves with Boris even after his arrest. It's just good for relations if the BBA shows an ounce of sympathy and…sportsmanship."

"_Sportsmanship?!_ You want us to go to the funeral of a man who used hundreds of kids like Tala and Kai as lab rats for the sake of _sportsmanship_ and _relations_?"

"I know how it sounds, Max, but its' one of those unfortunate things we have to do."

"Ugh. Fine. Our car is meant to get us there at three Sir. What time will you be there do you think?"

"Me? Oh sorry Max I won't be attending. I'm at a very important conference in the Bahamas."

Needless to say, I wasn't very happy with Mr Dickenson after that particular exchange.

"Maybe we should talk to that doctor he had at the hospital. He said something about if Tala stopped taking his medication," I suggest, realizing I could no longer pretend to be still sorting out my tie and so joining Kai at the doorway to his bedroom.

"Tomorrow," Kai said, straightening and going downstairs.

So, here we are. Waiting for the car. I'm ready, dressed fully in black, ready for the car to show up. I look over at Kai and his face is tight and pained and pale. I wish all of this had never happened.

The buzzer finally goes. Despite the fact that I _hate_ Mr Dickenson right now, I'm thankful that he ordered a car for us. I can't imagine Kai bothering and I haven't had my head together to organise things.

To be honest, I'd truly thought paparazzi wouldn't be a problem. So when we drew up outside the cemetery my mouth dropped at the wall of blinding lights behind the tinted windows. I gawped at Kai and Tala.

"What the hell?"

Tala was too busy looking at something on his knee. Kai just grunted.

It wasn't like I wasn't used to mass paparazzi hysteria. I'd walked off planes to find hordes of them trying to get a picture of us stumbling off looking jet-lagged for a competition. There'd been press-conferences, various publicity things. But this was totally different.

I opened up the car door and slid out into a white hot punch of bright light. I was disoriented, I couldn't see my surroundings as the flash of cameras was taking up every inch of my sight. My name and various questions started to be bellowed out to me, as if at some point I'd lost my hearing. Kai's right behind me, and he digs his fingers into the small of my back to push me forward.

I eventually make out some kind of gates in front of me and make my way towards them, trying not to look at the cameras for fear of permanent blindness, but trying to make it look like I wasn't about to fall over any second.

So I guess this is what will be all over the Sports papers tomorrow, and maybe the others: a picture of me, Kai and Tala all dressed in suits ready for a funeral.

At that moment I seriously wanted to tell Mr Dickenson exactly what I thought of him.

Thankfully Tala's so out of it he hardly notices the cameras. We're ushered into the graveyard and towards a private corner under a rash of low-hanging trees. There's no church service, just a Priest at the head of the open grave and the coffin ready to be winched down.

Soon the sound of the media's yells sink away and the Priest gets through the small service quickly. We're left on our own after that, once the dirt's covered the coffin and he is officially buried.

"

So, home sweet home. I'm still fuming about Mr Dickenson not having the backbone to do his own company's bidding. I go to make us a drink; we all know that chocolate's good for the soul. I seemed, however, to have contracted verbal diarrhoea to fill the silence.

"I don't understand why Mr Dickenson was such a coward about it. And how are we good representatives of the BBA? Of the teams, maybe, but not the organisation itself. He's such a pri-"

"The turtle's dead!"

"What?!"

I rushed into the living room to find Kai in the armchair in his typical Kai Zen-like state, and Tala lying on the sofa watching television.

And my turtle healthily paddling in his tank.

"What the-?"

"Thought it might shut you up."

"Thanks."

That was nice. I was just being outraged. And on their behalf too; I doubt either of them wanted to watch their demented, abusive ex-teacher lowered into the ground.

Right, well, now that the funeral's over…onto the next catastrophe.

Like why is there an angry man at the door?

There's lots of shouting from downstairs. I hope there are no plates on the washing-up rack or else Mr Hiwatari is going to be taking a trip to the ER.

"Maybe you should get some rest."

"I'm fine," I say, determinedly.

"You just lay down at the top of the stairs because you were 'too tired to make it to your room.'"

That was true, actually. By the time I got to the top of the stairs I simply lay down on the carpet, panting, unable to move.

It's stress, I swear it is.

Although, there are two pros to being so exhausted. From this position on the landing I have managed to a) get into a prime position from which listen to the argument downstairs, even if I don't understand a word of it, and b) get Tala to talk to me in full sentences.

I sort of get the feeling it's the calm before the storm though; only bad things can happen when Tala hasn't taken his medication _or_ eaten since he got back home.

"Fancy something to eat?" I say, as nonchalantly as ever. There was a crash from downstairs.

Tala blinked, "No."

"No. Me either."

I don't think I'd done enough awful deeds in life to find myself caught between a Hiwatari father/son argument.

"What are they saying?" I ask Tala, whilst he's lucid.

He's sat on the landing next to me, gazing in a rather un-fixed away at the opposite wall. Ok so maybe he's not _entirely_ lucid, but close enough.

"It's all about Kai going back to live with him. His Dad thinks it'll help his relationship with his new wife. Apparently if Kai doesn't do as he says he'll put an injunction on the money he gets from his Grandfather's estate."

"Wow. What a jerk."

"He always was."

"You've met him before?"

"Once. Not so long ago. Blamed me for Kai going 'off the rails' as of late. He called me a boy-whore."

"What did you do?"

"Me? I laughed. I think Kai was ready to hit him…Bryan actually did."

Makes sense.

Tala stood up suddenly, leaping to his feet a little unsteadily.

"You Ok?"

"Yeah," he muttered, before disappearing into his room.

I groan. I don't want Tala to be unwell. I want him to be fine. I want him to get back to his usual self. I want Kai's Dad to get lost so we can go back to normal life.

I want to go to _sleeeeeeeeeeeep_!!

An indeterminable amount of time later, and I'm suddenly conscious I'm drooling on the carpet. So I _did_ go to sleep. I roll onto my back and blink blearily upwards, hoping that that blur above me was Kai or Tala and not a foe. I was hardly in the state to defend myself – drool-stained and sleepy as I was.

"How long have I been asleep?"

"An hour or two."

Even if I can't see him, I recognise it is Kai who is speaking.

"Did you sort things out with your Dad?"

"Get up. I've called the doctor."

"What, why?" I leap up, suddenly awake, "Is it Tala, is he Ok?"

He jerked his head in the direction of Tala's door in response. I nudge the door open.

Poor Tala. I figured he wasn't very well, but I guess I never let myself believe how bad it could get.

He's lying out on his bed, the pillow over his head, hidden partially by the covers. I can see his arms thrown over his head, wrapped around as if trying to protect it from something. His fingers slightly gripping his hair, his body shaking from exhaustion. His breathing is uneven, unsteady, and he's shaking like he has a fever.

All I can think is that I'm relieved Kai called the doctor.

"Is this because of him not taking his medication? Or Boris? Or…both?" although I already knew the answer.

"Both."

"What can the doctor do for him though?"

Kai shrugs. As much as Kai's compassion, sympathy and astounding strength and support during this difficult time is overwhelming (ha!), I really, really need Rei right about now. He can be so calm and reassuring and I know that he'd tell me everything will be Ok. It's somehow not so convincing when I tell myself that.

My stomach growls.

"That's another thing," Kai says, as he moves across the room. He slides a hand under the pillow, managing not to disturb Tala is in little safe cave of darkness, and rests his head on Tala's forehead, checking for a fever, "We don't have any food…"

"We need to go shopping."

"…And we don't have any money."

"Wh-….What? Did you check the account?"

"We currently have three dollars and 49 cents."

"Dammit. What about the kitty we had going?"

"Three cents and a button."

I throw my hands over my face, hardly able to stifle a long groan, "This can't be happening. How can we not have any _money_?"

"Maybe because Tala and I aren't earning anything, my allowance has been stopped, and you never turned up to that job you had."

Oh, yeah. Now I know why I felt like I was continually forgetting something.

"Wait…your allowance has been stopped? When did that happen?"

"Apparently someone new on my Grandfather's accountancy team wasn't told my allowance came under the heading 'stable boy allowance'. He found out that my Grandfather doesn't employ a stable boy, and so thought he would cancel the account to prevent loss of money. Took them a while to find out, and so they're currently trying to set it up again."

"How long will they take?"

"It would normally take no time at all. But they hate me. So anywhere from a week until I'm thirty."

I chew on my lip. Damn. We need a strategy.

"We need money. We can't go to Mr Dickenson again. Maybe we should all….maybe you and I should get jobs. Maybe we could ask Mr Dickenson to give us a training job at the BBA centre. We could teach together. I could do all the talking and you could do the demonstrating, and we could have classes. Like, really young children, and then older children. Maybe I should teach the younger children though, you might make them cry."

I grin innocently at him as he glares back at me.

The doctor tells us what we already knew: Tala needs to take his medication. He went on to add that Tala's mental stress is taking a toll on his body; he has a fever and his blood sugar levels will have plummeted from not having eaten for a long time. He told us that the most important thing is make Tala eat; a relapse into the ways he had before he left hospital could send him straight back. The medication could come second, although it was pretty important to persuade Tala to take it.

"If he abstains for much longer, or continues to refuse to eat, he'll need to go to hospital. Mental stress can be volatile; lack of sleep, food and with Tala still technically recovering from his coma…that could prove dangerous. Keep an eye on him. I'll be back in a day or two."

I'm still trying to process all of the information an hour after he's gone, but my brain's not functioning so great.

"Go to bed Max."

I decide for once to do as I'm told. I crawl into bed thankfully and am asleep before I remember my head touching the pillow.

I feel like I've slept for a day and a half. For a while, everything's sweetly blurry. Sun pours in through my windows and bathes everything in a golden glow. Someone swears out in the street and a dog barks in response. I stretch out my legs, my knee joints popping painfully, and my feet connect with something.

"Hm?"

'Yay', I think, they've brought me some goodies to eat in bed. Maybe it's pancakes, or bagels or something tasty….until I remember that right about now isn't a time I should expect treats in bed. That was really a 'Before Tala Disappeared Off The Face Of the Earth To Watch Boris Die' thing.

Still, there _is_ someone at the end of my bed.

No, wait. Two people.

Kai _and_ Tala.

"Tala made pancakes," Kai says, in a 'get up and appreciate them _now_' voice. I comply and sit up quickly. Not only because I want to try and encourage Tala to share them with me – they are after all something he cooked himself – but also because I'm _starving_.

"Want some?" I ask, sliding two pancakes from the tray onto the plate.

Tala shakes his head, wrapping his arms around his knees. Well, the straightforward way doesn't work. Before I can try another tact he gets up and drifts away, looking thinner than ever in low-riding pants and a blood-red top.

I tuck into my pancakes, watching him retreat.

"Is he Ok?"

"No."

Kai shifts, looking uncomfortable, until he's leant against the end of my bed with his legs and arms crossed.

"What's wrong?"

"What do you think?"

"He's not all there in the head right and is practically comatose?"

Kai grunts in response, so I guess I hit the mark.

"Have you been able to get him to take anything?"

"No."

A long, lengthy pause.

"Erm…did you get any sleep?"

I'm guessing by the pissy look, narrowed eyes and slightly slumped shoulders that he hasn't. I suddenly feel guilty for sleeping like a baby last night.

"The minute you went to bed, he woke up. Claimed he felt fine. I tried to make him go back to bed but he kept saying 'I'm busy'."

"What happened then?"

"He spent the rest of the night making pancakes."

I pause in the middle of my chewing.

"You mean…there are more of these downstairs?"

"Hn."

"Wow."

I eat in silence after that. We have no idea where Tala has gone, but I think maybe after a night of babysitting Kai's quite happy to let him wander around the locked apartment for a while unsupervised. He looks exhausted.

"Maybe you should get some sleep Kai."

"I'm fine."

"Well…maybe if you went to sleep, Tala might."

Kai doesn't even bother to reply to that. Downstairs there's the clatter of pans and pots together. What is he doing _now_?

At this point, I am sorely tempted to ring up Bryan, since I think physical force is the only thing that's going to get Tala to eat. Not that I don't think Kai can use physical force…it's just that he looks too exhausted to look even remotely disgusted at the way I'm scoffing down the pancakes. And he's probably been eating them since Tala started making them.

"How are we going to get Tala to eat? How are we going to get him to take his medication? Because both of those things are things he doesn't want to do and if I remember rightly, Tala _never_ does _anything_ that he doesn't want to do."

"You're right," Kai says, not looking up.

I expected a little bit more than that, but Ok. Nice to see he's looking on the positive rather than the negative and has an abundance of ideas about this issue. I scarf another pancake to prevent myself from saying any of these thoughts out loud. It'd only end in my tongue being ripped out.

Which would be a shame because these pancakes are _really nice._

Poor Tala. I want to give him a hug or something, he looks like a lost boy as he wanders back into the room. His slightly baggy clothes are dappled with splashes of water. I guess he's been washing up then.

Tala crawls onto the bed and leans very close to Kai.

"Tala-"

"He's asleep," Tala whispered. Despite the strange things going on in that head of his, he is right. Kai's fast asleep where he's sat. His head is slumped forward a little, arms folded and leaning heavy against the end of my bed. His bangs are hiding his closed eyes, but I can see his chest rising and falling steadily.

Tala looks like he's going to prod him or something so I shove the tray into his arms and guide him up off the bed, "Come on Tala, I want some more pancakes."

I feel sort of guilty for leaving Kai in that uncomfortable position, but I have to keep Tala from waking him up. And anyway, he's left me in all sorts of uncomfortable sleeping positions around the apartment. A bit of pay back won't do him too much harm.

Downstairs the smell of pancakes is amazing. And worrying. There's a lot of them. Tala sits down at the kitchen table and stares blankly into space. I rootled through the many stacks of pancakes until I find a relatively warm one, lay it out on a plate and put it down firmly in front of Tala.

"Eat that Tala."

"No," Tala responds, not even looking down at it.

"Tala, if you don't eat something, you're going to make yourself ill. Do you want to make yourself ill?"

"No."

I don't know whether he's actually answering my question or he's still stuck on the first one. Or whether he's just going to answer 'no' to every question I put to him.

"Well then eat the pancake."

"No." This time the 'no' sounds softer and a lot less resolute. His voice wavers a little, and his eyes focused hard on a point at the other side of the table as if he was trying to concentrate heavily.

"Please Tala?"

"No." The 'no' definitely trembles this time. If he'd stayed sat there any longer he might have let whatever was building up in him go, but he didn't. Instead he got up quickly and left. I heard him walk up the stairs, a door shut quietly. I start to throw the pancakes away, feeling my own constriction in my chest and throat. If I'd have had the guts and had really thought about it, I would have spat on Boris' yesterday. And I'd do anything to take away what he's done to the Blitzkrieg Boys.

I heave myself upstairs, feeling ready to go to sleep again, although really I'm just trying to find the phone. Either I'll ring God and ask him if he thinks this is some sort of joke, or I'll ring Rei for a good long moan. I enter my room not really prepared for what I see, so it takes a while for it to sink in. Kai, who I completely forgot I had left sleeping at the end of my bed, had moved away from his uncomfortable position against the board and was now half on his side, half on his front, still nowhere near the pillows. I doubt he was very awake or conscious of where he was when he moved himself from his original position.

And sleeping next to him; Tala. Breathing a little ragged, but heavy enough to suggest he too is fast off. I don't really know what to do. Apart from 'awwww' from the cuteness of it all, there really isn't much I can do. They're both getting some rest, which is a good thing. So I leave them to it, and tiptoe around the apartment until I find the phone. Shutting myself in the living room I dial Rei's cell, hoping I'd get through.

"Hello?"

"Rei. It's Max."

"Max! Hey, how are you doing? I heard it was the funeral yesterday. Your pictures are all over the newspapers. How was it?"

"Pretty bad by anyone's standards. I think it's nearly killed Tala."

"Is he not doing good?"

"No. Not at all. I don't know what to do Rei, he…compared to the Blitzkrieg Boys, I know nothing about Tala. Nothing. So what am I supposed to do? I can't help him if I don't know how. Kai doesn't even seem to know what to do. I'm so worried around him, he's not himself. And we have no money whatsoever. Kai's Dad is still hounding him. Mr Dickenson doesn't even know half of what is going on. What am I supposed to do?"

I didn't mean to go off on one like that, and so when I've finished I bite my tongue, wincing, "Sorry. You probably didn't want to hear my depressing tales of woe, again."

But Rei doesn't reply.

"Rei?"

"I'm thinking."

"Oh, Ok."

After a pause, he seems to have thought enough and says, "Max, you've only got one option. Talk to Mr Dickenson. Ask him to let you teach at the BBA headquarters, you'll be making money doing something that you love. And it's something Kai and Tala can do, so that you're not the only breadwinner. Tell him about Tala too. Maybe he can help."

"How? Kai doesn't even know how to help. Last night he couldn't even stop Tala from making a truckload of pancakes."

"Pancakes?"

"Yep."

"Wow…he does sound bad."

"Exactly. He's not just a few fries short of a Happy Meal, he's missing some chicken nuggets and the little toy too."

Rei sighed, obviously thinking again, "Oh, wait, sorry Max, I have to go. Service starts in a minute."

"Service? Where are you?"

"I'm in Paris again, I'm cooking for my Uncle. So Max, listen, just tell Mr Dickenson all this. You shouldn't have to go through it alone. When I've finished working here I'll come and visit, Ok? Ring me soon and tell me how Tala's doing."

"I will do. Thanks Rei. Bye."

"Bye."

We cut the connection at the same time and I throw the phone onto the sofa. I barely have time to sigh myself before it starts to ring. I remember why I accidentally-on-purpose lost it in the first place.

"Hello?"

"Max? Max?! Oh Maxxie, baby! I've been trying to get through to you for weeks and I-"

Oops.

I hung up.

I'll deal with _that_ problem after the 100 and one other problems I have yet to solve.

--

Don't worry I will put you out of your misery soon! This ends either in the next chapter or the chapter after, so hang on in there it's nearly done! Prepare for smushiness, sappiness etc to ensue in the epilogue (which I've written, weirdly enough) because it just makes me feel good inside. :D Review!!


	14. Chapter 13

Dodges angry looks I am so sorry!! I really, really, really am, please forgive me! But it's a nice long chappie so hopefully your revenge won't be too horrible!

Reviews will definitely get the next chapter up slightly quicker because I'm becoming increasingly lost with my writing (_any _type of writing) and I haven't really written anything I consider 'good' for months! Sigh the depression of writer's block!

* * *

Ok _why_ do the Fates have it in for me? Am I an especially bad person? Because up until I moved into this flat I seriously thought I was quite a good person. Nice. Kind. Cheery. Loyal. Apparently all of that means diddly-squat to whoever is handing out the karma up there.

"No, no, no!" I cry, banging the top of the machine with a fist. Not that it is this particular machine's fault, "The electricity is gone."

I explain, when Kai emerges. For a moment I swear I see panic in his eyes as he catches sight of the two dead coffee machines on the top; then either he gets it under control or I have been mistaken because suddenly it disappears.

"Have you checked the fuse-box?"

"I don't know where it is."

After some research, we find out that apparently the fuse-box has been hidden somewhere down the hall and the landlord doesn't trust us to find it.

"I'll get Mr Higgs on it," (Mr Higgs being the super, I presume, although knowing the landlord it is probably his DIY-alter ego).

"What's going on?" Tala asks, appearing at the front door where I'm scoping out for Mr Higgs.

"The electricity is out," I explain, "Don't go near Kai, he hasn't had any caffeine today. He can't be responsible for his actions."

Tala leans against the doorframe, ignoring my dig at his fellow Russian, and stares vacantly at the floor.

"Did you take your medication this morning?" I ask, officially hating the word 'medication' all over again. He nods, and I decide until I check the packet to believe him.

"Do you want some breakfast?"

He shakes his head. Well, I can't ask for everything I suppose. The elevator pings open and a stranger makes his way towards his, big beefy shoulders nearly eclipsing the light from the hallway windows. I hope this is Mr Higgs, but as he walks directly towards us with a suddenly quickened pace I sincerely doubt it is. I take a step back, but Tala is still staring into nothingness.

"Can I help you?" I ask, as he pulls up in front of us, looking down from a considerable height with serious, beady eyes.

"Yes," he says. Oh…damn. A Russian accent. That can only mean one thing….

"Is Kai Hiwatari at home?"

"No," I say, immediately, taking another tiny step back, "He isn't. He went out."

"Well he has not left the building since last night. He must be inside. Where is he?"

"He's not in," I say again, more firmly.

Hang on…does that mean they've been watching us come in and out of the building? Kai's father sent them to stalk us? I suddenly feel so creeped out it's like a physical revulsion.

"No, he's not in, now you can leave."

Why is Tala not helping? I once saw Tala break a reporter (a hard-nosed paparazzi guy as well) down into a quivering ball of tears with a few well-chosen words. Why is he not using his alarming technique of making people feel suicidal right about now when it's actually useful?!

The big hulk of muscle takes a step forward, clearly determined to enter. Before I can blink or scream like a girl, Tala swings round, planting a high kick into the man's midriff. He doubles over and Tala delivers a swinging punch to the side of the head, knocking him out cold.

….

Whoa. Go Tala.

I start nudging the guy with my foot until he droops over to the other side of our threshold, then slam the door shut and lock every lock we have.

* * *

Ok, now Kai is acting weird. Not that I blame him; one of his Dad's goons has just tried to get into the apartment uninvited. The unconscious guy has moved, so either his fellow goons came to see what was taking so long and stretchered him away when they found him, or he came around and hasn't died from Tala's attack.

Either way, Kai's mad.

You can see him seething beneath a thin veil of control. I can see him gritting his teeth, a habit I actually noticed half way through our second world championship circuit. At the time I noticed it, but at the time didn't think it that strange, even for Kai. I mean, Tyson _had_ just knocked the heads off two mannequins in a sports store _in front _of a full house of paparazzi (we were actually opening the store at the time…how that boy got to be World Champ I'll never know).

Tala, on the other hand, seems completely serene at the moment. According to the doctor, getting back on the medication would make him act strangely, particularly if he skipped dosages, which he still did…regularly. Oh well, at least he's _taking _them.

That's a step in the right direction, at least.

"Dah," Kai snaps into the phone. It's the only word I've actually been able to understand throughout this entire conversation, but I know by the tone that it's not good.

Tala starts to whistle, although you can't really him because he's behind the sofa.

Don't ask me why.  
Apparently it's nice and dark down there and his eyes are hurting, or something along those lines. I'm not sure whether I prefer Tala-back-on-his-medication-but-only-when-we-can-force-him or Tala-not-on-his-medication. I also can't decide which one is weirder.

Kai shoves a pillow down the back of the sofa and the whistling becomes even more muffled.

"Nyet."

Ah. Another word I understand! Maybe I should take those Beginners Russian classes down at the public library. Do you think they'd involve learning expletives and insults? Because, living with Kai and Tala, that's all I really need to know.

Eventually Kai hangs up the phone, glowering.

"Who was that?" I tried to ask in a chirpy way.

"My father is threatening to sue Mr Dickenson for 'keeping his son away from him'."

"What has Mr D got to do with it?

Kai just makes a noise of frustration and sits down heavily in the armchair, sinking into one of his typical zen-like states.

Great. Now I've got a choice between trying to extricate Tala from behind the sofa or starting dinner….

To be honest, both would just depress me. I'm just going to sit here and cry on the inside.

The phone rings again half way through my little inner-depression session, and I pick up this time, fearing Kai might turn into the Incredible Russian Hulk if he has to talk to his father/another lawyer/a human being on the phone again.

"Hello?"

There's a pause, "Put Kai on the phone."

"Who is this?"

"What are you, his secretary? Put Kai on, Blondie."

Ah. The dulcet tones of one Bryan Kuznetsov. Only a particularly stubborn vegetable would rival this boy on lack of communication skills.

"Aren't you meant to be Russia, or something?" I ask, realising I'm not entirely sure which country Bryan _is_ meant to be in. Not that I really care, so long as I'm not sharing the same land mass as him that's fine by me. I can just hear him breathing down the phone in response, and it's enough to get me to hand the phone over to Kai. That guy scares the hell out of me. How can he do that over the phone?!

"It's Bryan," I say, as Kai lifts it to his ear. I wonder how it must feel to have the Evil Overlord of Pain and Suffering call for you? Perfectly normal for Kai or Tala, obviously, they're friends.

But I think I'd mess my pants if Bryan rang out of his own free will to talk especially to me.

Whilst Kai is on the phone to Bryan, the light on the coffee machine flicks on and the sound of the decrepid boiler starting up whirrs into the silence.  
"Electricity!" I cry, my stomach cheering too at the idea it might get some food.

Eventually, I coax Tala into the kitchen, and soon he starts making us dinner. Mmmm, spaghetti bolognaise. For someone who hates food, he sure can cook well. Of course we can't have lasagne, which I suggested, because it involves cheese, and God forbid if someone tried to make Tala eat cheese. He treats it like the plague. That and anything fried. I don't think Kai really cares, and if I ever decide to raise the issue that quite a few of my favourite dishes are either fried or covered in cheese (come on, I'm American, what do you expect?!), Kai would give me a look that'd shut me up in seconds.

I wouldn't dare bring up the problem now. I'm happy that Tala's cooking something; that means he's half way to actually eating it.

I once asked Tala why he could only eat food he'd cooked. He hadn't replied, so I don't still don't know….must be a control thing. It's a good job we don't live the life of the rich and famous, as many people think we do, because Tala could never go out to a restaurant to eat. Although, come to think of it, if we were all rich and famous we wouldn't even be living together.

"Max. Max. Pass me the pasta."

I hand Tala the bag of pasta and Kai emerges from the pit of gloom (the living room; the thing you pull the curtains up with has broken so we are plunged into darkness thanks to the extortionate amount of money we have to pay for the electricity).

"Nobody answer the door to anyone," he says, in the voice he usually reserves for when he's telling Tyson that if attempts to have what he calls his 'second lunch' then he's going to break every finger in his right hand, "And nobody answer the phone."  
He's looking mainly at me when he says this, but I don't know why. The phone _is _still locked away in the laundry basket at _my_ request.

* * *

Tala is really quiet the next day. Not that he was ever chatty but….he had more life. Apparently his first session with the psychiatrist didn't go very well. Tala won't say what happened, neither will Mr Dickenson who dropped him off looking ashen faced. He'd ordered a car to take Tala to and from the session every week, and had decided to go along this time. I think he was glad that he did, even if it ended up in tears. I think next time though Mr Dickenson will be volunteering me.

Anyway, serves him right; he shouldn't have bailed on us when it was the funeral.

Ha.

My own silent form of punishment. I hope he has to take Tala every week and that Tala makes a scene every week.

Well…Ok, maybe I do actually want Tala's therapy to go well. Of course I do. I want it to help him, I want him to start to feel better. Because he's certainly not himself.

Kai slept in Tala's room with him last night; however I don't think it did much good, they both look exhausted.

"Kai, you didn't…you didn't sleep last night did you? Again."  
Kai pauses, like he might just ignore my question, then responds quickly, "The minute I suggest he goes to sleep, he finds himself having to do something. Cook, call Bryan, have a bath, tidy his room, pull up all the carpet in his room-"

"What?! He did _what_? Why didn't you stop him?"

"I hadn't slept in seventy two hours, Max, I couldn't keep my eyes open. I fell asleep and woke up half an hour later and the entire floor had been stripped of carpet."  
I paused, thinking the situation over, "How did he do it without lifting the furniture?"

Kai just shrugs, then takes two gulps of his searing hot coffee and buries himself in his book. Great. So we'll be paying for new carpet this month.

"Kai…why don't I take over tonight? Watch Tala, I mean. You look exhausted, and I've got some good sleep these last few days. You need a rest."  
Kai shakes his head, "Tala is ten times worse at night. Everything just…gets worse."  
"I'll handle it. One night, Kai! You can't expect to stay awake until Tala gets better."

Kai narrows his eyes towards me, sizing me and my offer up. I decide to grease the wheels a little more, "You just sleep tonight and I'll watch Tala. By the time you wake up, Tala will have cooked a three course meal, but you won't be so tired and you can…you know, keep on helping Tala and…shout at lawyers and stuff."

Kai doesn't look all that convinced or happy about the whole thing, but eventually he gives in and relents to my idea. I head off to bed to catch some sleep in the afternoon whilst Kai and Tala mooch around in the bathroom. I can hear water sloshing, so I guess one of them is in the bath. Well, I assume _one_ of them is. Either that or they've decided to be very economical with our water and share a bath….

The phone starts ringing from where it's once again residing in the laundry basket…the overflowing-with-out-laundry laundry basket.

Well I would put it all in the washer but I'm not the house maid and, well, we can't afford wash-powder.

I sleep until about dinner time, when I'm woken by the sound of yelling. The shouts quietened down, but I still roll out of bed to investigate. Unsurprisingly its come from Kai's room, where Tala is huddled up in the far corner, his face hidden in his knees. Even in the quiet gloom of the room, I can see him shaking. Kai is sat right next to him, staring blankly down at the floor.

"Anyone want any dinner?" I ask, quietly, knowing it was a stupid question.  
"No," Kai says, not looking up. I sit down opposite them. Now I'm closer I can see Tala's shoulders are tense and his knuckles are white where they're gripping onto his jeans.

It takes an hour or so for Tala to eventually unfurl. My stomach's growling but I think Tala needs me to _not_ talk about food right now. Kai's watching him like a hawk, or like Tala might self-combust any minute. Eventually Tala mumbles, "What are you both staring at me for? Stop it, it freaks me out."

"Are you Ok, Tala?"  
"I'm fine. Why?"  
Kai doesn't give me any idea as to what to say so I stutter, "Oh, uh, no reason, it's just you – uh – looked…a little pale."

Nice save Max. If you really need a job, you'd be a perfect spy for the BBA camp.

'_What are you doing in here?'_

'_I, uh, well, um, I was sorta…I was lost.'_

Ok my imagination needs reigning in, I have to go and make sure everything within Tala's reach is nailed down so that he doesn't give me too much grief tonight. I leave them in the room sitting side by side, Tala repeatedly asking Kai why the hell he is staring at him. I was a little worried why Kai hasn't answered….maybe he's gone to sleep with his eyes closed? He looks tired enough.

* * *

Ok, now Kai just looks like he might hit something. Lets just hope that whatever he does eventually hit is not me. He's prowling around in the kitchen, apparently 'waiting for a phone call'. Tala is not Ok, but not terrible. Is a panic attack terrible? Anyway, he's sleeping now, although he's moaning in his sleep and won't stay still.

The fact that he's sleeping is good; tonight might not be such a disaster if he sleeps through most of it.

He's wrapped up in the covers on Kai's bed. When I came up after mooching around downstairs for a bit, Kai had taken off his shoes and socks and jeans and put him into bed. Which I'm pretty thankful for; I wouldn't necessarily mind doing it myself but Tala is a dead weight when he's asleep, and I'm too weak to lift him up even though he is ridiculously skinny.

Kai's room is still dark with the drawn curtains, but I can make out some shapes in the dark. His wardrobe, his desk (covered in bits of paper and pens), and his bed of course. I'm sat by the side of the bed on the floor, so I can also see the stuff he owns spread out through the room like a landscape.

There's lots of boxes under his bed….would he mind me taking a look?

Well, yes, that's an obvious answer, but he doesn't have to know I had a quick peek.

Under his bed I can see the white under bed storage box with shapes like clothes and bags and stuff inside. We all brought one when we moved into the flat, although I get the feeling this is Tala's extra one, because I doubt Kai has so many clothes that he can fill a wardrobe and an under-bed storage box. Tala on the other hand….I have to admit I was shocked at the amount of clothes he owns…

Then there's the shape of some trophies sticking out of another storage box with an open top. I narrow my eyes through the gloom and make out a bit of the engraving. Ah, so they're his junior cup titles from when he was in the Beysharks. I didn't know he's keep them! Then there's a pile of books and notebooks, and a newspaper. I wriggle the newspaper out from under a notebook and take a look. It's an article about our first ever World Championship win. It's dusty and brittle but you can still see us all colourful in the picture.

My god I look like a little monkey! What was I thinking? Did I _really_ look like that during the first circuit? How embarrassing!

I peer down under his bed again and try to arrange the stuff back into their rightful places. As I do so my hand catches some sort material, and when I pull on it a bit I see its one of Kai's old white scarves. He never wears them anymore, unless we go out and its seriously cold. I guess he will do again when we're blading, but for now they're shoved into his wardrobe. So what is this one doing under his bed?

It's all worn at the edges and ends, I guess its an old one. There's mud on one end too; funny, I never thought Kai would let any of his stuff get dirty. Then I turn it over and see the blood marks on the other side. Its definitely blood; it's the right red colour. Someone has obviously attempted to wash it out, but the stain is still there.

Ahhh, I get it now. This must be the one from the last tournament after his battle with Tyson. Or maybe the one with Brooklyn? Maybe the same one. Either way, those are the only two Bey-battles I can think of him bleeding like that. He was badly beaten up in both of them.

Ok, I think I'm snooping a little too much now. Maybe I should retreat….except there's a sealed box just next to the scarf which is tempting me.  
And who am I to say no to a bit of privacy-wrecking?

I pull out the cardboard box and smile at what is scrawled on the top in Kai's unmistakable writing: 'Tyson, open this and die.'

Ah, so Kai was taking precautions for his stuff even when we were travelling.

That's strange though, why would have taken this box travelling with him, I never noticed it before. We usually only take suitcases and if we're staying somewhere for a long time we get a couple of boxes sent over each but that's about it. The rest of our stuff is left at home; would that be the Voltaire mansion for Kai? Or a storage box somewhere? I don't know, and I don't think I've got the courage to ask.

My interest is piqued. It doesn't say '_Max_, open this and die', it's only addressed to Tyson, so surely he won't mind me having a look in it?

Yeah, right.

But still…

Wow, there's so much stuff in here! I _really_ shouldn't be snooping in this box but it's just so…interesting.

Kai has saved all the old bits from Dranzer's revamps. I just assume Kenny collects them in case he needs them again; but to be honest I've never seen my old Draciel parts again. But Kai's got them all in this box. Wow. Some of them are seriously old. Pre-Bladebreakers, probably even pre-Bladesharks. More like old-school Abbey Beyblade Dranzer, whatever that looked like.

There's also a letter…except it's all in Russian so I can't read a word of it. Damm! Then there's a couple of old bits of newspaper so old and yellow I can hardly the writing…oh no wait, it's in Russian….arrrgh! That's not helpful at all. But there's a picture of a car crash on one, which I can obviously understand even if it is in a Russian newspaper. But I don't know which article its been saved for; there one with a picture of a car crash on it, and on the other side another one, but of course I don't know what either of them are about.

I keep rootling around, finding some other stuff that has obviously just been stuck in there for quick and easy storage. I am going to get into soooooooo much trouble over this.

Stop doing it Maxxie, stop it, stop looking through Kai's stuff, you're going to get into so much trouble Max, sto- oooh what's this?

A birthday card.

For a two year old. What?

Ok, this is ridiculously, I'm getting my Idiots Guide to Russian out of my cupboard and reading what it says in this card, because I am not done sleuthing until I find out what this card means. I leave Tala sleeping away and creep back as silently as possible.

So, first word…ok, so that means 'to'. And I'm guessing the next word is 'Kai'.

So: To Kai,

….

Right, the next bit I have so far means 'happy birthday, our…'….wait a minute….there we go: happy birthday our special little boy'.

Awwwww.

Ok, next part: 'lots of love, Mummy and Daddy'.

So Kai has a card from his second birthday? That's so cute. It's all bashed up and a little bent and ripped up he's obviously felt like he wanted to keep it.

Wow, this is amazing.  
And something that I will never, ever, ever, ever tell anyone else and will take to my grave. Or risk losing some extremities if Kai finds out I was snooping through some very personal stuff.

At the very bottom, scuffed from all the other stuff planted on top of it, is a drawing obviously done by a small child with a lot of red crayon. I whip out my Idiots Guide to Russian book again, and decipher the mess of words 'this is for you Kai, this is you, love Tala'.

Even bigger awwwwwwwwwwws. Tala drew a picture of Kai for him?

I didn't think they'd have arts supplies in the Abbey…

"Kai is going to kill you when he finds out you've been through his box!"  
"Holy crap!" I yell, dropping the box onto my lap. Ok, maybe Tala isn't so asleep anymore.

"Tala! You made me jump!"

"What are you looking through that box for?" then a pause and, "Which one is it?"

Practically glowing bright red, I show him the box and mutter sheepishly about being bored or something.  
"Oh," Tala says, rolling over onto his side to look at me, "That's a _real_ personal box you know. Even I haven't looked through that one. He's had that since the Abbey. We only had one box to keep our stuff in and that was his."  
"_Please_ don't tell him I was looking at it, I'll never be allowed to blade for the Beybladers _ever_ again if he finds out, he'll put me on the bench for the rest of my career and then once that career is over he _will_ kill me."

Tala yawns and rolls onto his other side, "Whatever. Just put it back and tell me what you found in it later."

And he goes back to sleep. I shove the box back under the bed and scurry away. I can't be near temptation because I will always succumb to it…

* * *

It's nine at night, and no-one is around. The last time I saw Tala, he was lying on his bedroom floor, holding in his stomach with his fingers digging in hard just above his hip bones. Talking silently to himself.

That's not good.

I'm keeping an eye on him because Kai has been in the bathroom for the past hour, and I don't know what he's doing. So I'm in charge of locking up; feeding the turtle, finishing the washing up, switching off the downstairs plugs, taking the threatening letters from Kai's father from the doorjamb and dumping them in the bin, switching off the lights. I drag myself upstairs and slouch along the hallway, wondering why I offered to watch over Tala through the night.

"Max."

I jump a mile at the sound of my name, and turn to see Kai has finally emerged from the bath. He's dripping water on the hall carpet, a towel wrapped around his waist. If I were a fangirl I would currently be orgasming at the sight before me.

As it is, I'm just murderous with jealousy. I could work my entire life and never look that good. Kai actually has peck_s_ – plural. What do I have? A flat expanse of stupidly pale skin. Ok, I have some muscle from all that training that Kai made us do, but it's hardly impressive. Kai actually has toned muscle under skin, like Tala. I have nothing but scrawny, sinewy things that struggle to hold me up on the monkey bars.

Not that I've been to the children's playground just around the corner to practice or anything…..

"Yes?" I say, snapping my eyes to his so that he didn't think I was perving or something.

"The phone's been ringing in the laundry basket for the last hour."

He knows that I know what he means. He means pick up the damn phone next time your Mum calls and deal with it like a man.

Well I'm not a man; I think we've firmly established that I'm a skinny little boy whose in way over his head and can't find a way to scramble to safety.

But I smile apologetically, anyway. I even wink and say, with the biggest grin I can muster, "Sure, Kai. Hey, tomorrow I'm going to call Mr Dickenson, ask about any training jobs the three of us could get. What do you think?"

Might as well be positive.

He gives me a look that's not hard nor critical, in fact I don't know what you'd call it.

"False smiles don't suit you Max," he says as he passes me, heading towards his room.

Yeah. Like hell am I positive.

I wish I could read Tala as well as Kai can read me.

I can hear Tala whispering under his breath in his room. Kai ignores the sounds and shuts his door behind him. Maybe he's burying his face into his pillow and screaming as loud as he can. Maybe he's gripping at his hair and wondering what the hell to do. Or maybe he's just getting dressed. Either way, I wish he'd just do something helpful.

I need help. Nevermind Tala, whose on the edge of something he's about to go plunging down into.

I scuff my way off to Tala's room to start my night-time watch over him.

I thought Tala was going to be Ok after Boris. He seemed Ok, when we got him home. Then it was like the situation hit him, knocking him over and winding him. I'm not sure he's going to be able to shake it off.

I can't sleep because I'm on watch, but I can't just continue to sit here staring at Tala. He's still lying on the floor, still awake, still talking to himself. I go downstairs to play with the turtle but he's asleep. The poor thing doesn't even have a name. I can't think of any names beyond Leroy, for some reason. Where did Leroy come from? Maybe it's my conscience telling me to name my bloody turtle now, regardless of the name.

* * *

"What's your weight?"  
"What?"  
"What's your weight?"

"Why do you want to know that?"  
"Apparently, it's _really_ important the team's new PR guy knows our weight," I sigh, staring down at the letter I just picked up from the door mat, "And our height….and if we take drugs, how many boy and/ or girlfriends we've had, what our school grades our, what our favourite colour is…"

Kai holds out a hand wordlessly and I give him the piece of paper with his name scrawled in the 'Name' section at the top.

"Are you going to fill all these in?" I ask, dubiously. I know that if Kai does write anything, it'll be to tell where our new PR guy can get off.

Kai screws up the piece of paper in response and drops it into the bin under the side table.

"So…you're not going to do it then?"  
"No, Max."  
"Ok. Good."

I follow Kai's example and throw the questionnaire away. Even if he had filled it out, I probably would have avoided it or 'accidentally-on-purpose' lost it. I'd have to admit that I'm a boy and/or girlfriend-less freak with no knowledge of his favourite colour and whose put on weight since he stopped training.

"I think I need to start exercising more before the new Beyblade season starts. I'm a bit-"  
"Fat?"

"Hey!"

"It's just puppy-fat, you know that Max. You won't have to do much to keep it down."

"Aren't I a bit old for 'puppy fat'?"

"You'll probably grow out of it when you're about seventeen or so."

"Great, only two more years to go," I groan. Then, either because I'm bored or just plain stupid, I ask, "Did _you_ ever get puppy fat, Kai? You know, when you were younger."

Kai pauses for a while, as though thinking of a way to get rid of them. Then, surprisingly, he replies, although he doesn't look up from the book he's reading, "There was no chance of keeping natural fat on with the Abbey regime. You ate as much food as possible then if you hadn't worked it all off by the end of the training session, you had to throw it back up and you missed the next meal."

"That's horrible!" I cry, "Does that even make any medical sense? Did it work? Didn't you all get ill?"

"Why do you think we all have weird eating habits?"

Makes sense.

So no wonder Tala is so strange with food; on top of the 'fed through a tube for months' thing, he's got an entire childhood of bad dieting habits forced on him.

"Is Tala Ok?"  
"I think so. He's upstairs."  
"How was he last night? Really?"

The first time he asked me this I sort of lied and said 'fine. He was just a bit…weird.'

Weird doesn't even begin to describe it. I am exhausted because of that guy, and I have found a new determination to get him to take his medication.

I spent _all_ of last night taking stuff off him that he was determined he had to have a look at. And not normal stuff like clocks or pillows or the remote, but stuff that people shouldn't be touching. Stuff like the wires behind the skirting boards and the wire cutters from the tool kit the last tenant left under our sink, and bottles of rat poison that we under contract have to keep in our apartment.

_Then_ he insisted the toaster didn't work and he had to fix it. He stripped it bare and then left it and started cooking. When I came back from the bathroom the entire kitchen was overflowing with pancakes. Then he went and had a bath and didn't come out for about four hours so eventually I had to break in to make sure he hadn't drowned and he wasn't even in the bath, he was lying on the floor reading a book. Where he got the book from I don't know since I followed him all the way up to the bathroom and he didn't get one from his room, and there aren't any in the bathroom!

After that I had to sit in the living room listening to a two-hour conversation with Bryan on the phone, none of which I understood, and punctuated by Tala handing over the phone and Bryan shouting down the line at _me_ that if I didn't continue to look after Tala properly tonight he was going to trap my fingers in a door. Then threaten Kai with something even more horrible for leaving Tala under my watch.

So, even though _all that _happened last night, I don't want to explain it all to Kai. Although I should probably warn him about Bryan's threat…

Anyway, I open my mouth to answer 'he was fine', but I'm cut off by a loud crumpling thump from upstairs, followed by a deathly silence.

"Tala?!" I call up, suspiciously.

Nothing.

"Tala?!"

* * *

Tala has passed out. I don't know why he's fainted but my heart is about to break out of my chest with all the horrible possibilities I'm thinking of.

"Tala? Tala? Tala, come on, wake up."

He's boiling hot, and he's panting like he's run a marathon. So we try to cool him down with a damp towel and stripping off his shirt but he still doesn't come around.

And he's so pale.

What's wrong with him? He needs food, he needs his medication, he needs sleep…the doctor is going to have a field day when he arrives. He won't understand that we've tried so hard to make him better, he'll just see that he's fainted and that he's not put on any weight and jump to put him back into hospital.

That won't help.

I just know it. What will hospital do for someone who hates hospitals?

Except we don't call the doctor. We don't even go near the phone. Without actually discussing it out loud, we come to sort of conclusion together that under no circumstances do we tell the doctor about this. I don't know why, and to an outsider it might look irresponsible. But we just feel better watching over Tala ourselves.

We put him into Kai's bed, since that's where he's closest too, and after a while he starts to come around. He's still boiling hot and running a fever. Has he got the flu again? I wouldn't be surprised, seeing as his immune system is about as strong as my left bicep.

He doesn't really make any sense when he comes around, mumbling about something to do with being late.

Kai talks to him quietly in Russian where he's crouched on the far side of the bed. As I fiddle around with the damp towel, I catch a glimpse of Kai's hand holding onto on Tala's, his thumb stroking his skin.

This has all gone too far: Tala is staying in this bed until he's better. And I don't know how the hell Kai has decided this at the same time as me without the both of us discussing it, but it seems we've come to another silent agreement.

Tala is staying in this bed and he is going to eat, sleep and take his medication whether he likes it or not. It might only slightly help him recover mentally but he's going to get better physically even if it kills us.

Ooooooooooh. what do you think?!


End file.
